High-Gravity Sunday

Last night, Donna and I slept downstairs to keep Lana company. It appears that the spondylosis the vet had discovered as the source of the prior day's yelping was causing her too much discomfort to allow her to be brought upstairs to bed. Given her screechiness, even if I could have gotten her upstairs, I was worried that the pain she was exhibiting would make it difficult, if not impossible, to get her out of her box and back down this morning. So, we let her park herself, as comfortably as she could, on her throw pillow and we bedded down near her to keep her company.

As we waited for the pain meds to help her drift off to sleep, we had some painful discussions. While I'd be most concerned about the swollen lymph glands, earlier in the evening, it seemed like the back problem was an even more pressing problem. Worse, it seemed like it was progressing. We decided we'd watch for changes, today, and make decisions based on that.

Unfortunately, it's still not looking any better. She still seems to be in a level of discomfort. She seems unsure on her feet. She doesn't seem to want to poop and she doesn't seem to want to drink (I even tried raising her water dish up so she'd not have to bow her head down to drink). Yet, at the same time, she seemed like she wanted to be herself. She was very interested in her breakfast. She tried to do her morning dancing. When we brought Puckett down, she seemed to want to share in his morning exuberance. 

I don't know whether the pain meds are helping and are likely to get her to meaningfully improve. The not drinking is worrying. I don't know that I saw her drink at all, yesterday - I know she hadn't after coming home. I believe that we're going to end up having to make the decision, today or tomorrow, to send her on her way. It's seeming like the potential lymphoma's just going to end up being an interesting but otherwise meaningless data point.

It's feeling more and more like we're soon to be coming to the end of our 8 years, together. Still, I wasn't even expecting her to get to be this old. She had heart problems when we got her. She had that health-scare last December that made me think we were going to be sending her on her way, then. So, maybe, this is just another scare, but, it really doesn't feel like it's just a scare. It just feels like she's aged a lot in the last couple months and it's finally caught up.

Gotta call the vet's office, later, to see if I can get some idea of how progressed her spondylosis is. Gotta talk and see if holding out, too much longer, makes sense.