It’s incredibly strange to me to have your world suddenly rapidly reduce down to baby steps, but here we are.

Last night, before we went to bed, I set my alarms on my phone to tell me when his meds would be due so I could ensure his pain management protocols were robust and supportive. One of the alarms woke me and away we went.

Day 1 Wins: He peed three times, walked several steps outside before stopping and showed good awareness.

Day 1 Observations:

-Early on in the day, he had no appetite. I know this was somewhat to be expected. Early on in the day, he was still accepting his meds with his pill pockets so I assumed it was also just that his dog food was insanely unappealing. Around halfway through the day, he stopped being willing to take the pill pockets unless I put peanut butter on them. That said, that evening, I made myself some spaghetti and he was quite happy to eat a bowl full of noodles.

-He’s drinking a ton of water. Assume that’s a good thing.

-He still hasn’t yet pooped. Another very weird concept for me as I have tried very hard in my life not to be overly concerned about the bathroom habits of anyone but me, lol.

-Started noticing his reactions post Tramadol dosing – heavy panting, a wide eyed gaze and restlessness after each one. I cut it out of the regime last night and added a pill of Benadryl in instead and he handled it just fine. I do have a call into the vet to look for a replacement for that med just in case it becomes necessary to have one.

-His biggest unsteadiness is in standing up – once he’s up, he’s willing to go a few feet before he gets tired. I’d wondered if he’d be even quicker considering he’s effectively been on three paws for awhile, but it’s clear to be that he has a balance and weight distribution issue he needs to figure out and adapt to. He’s a hard no on the sling method (if dogs can glare) so we have to go step by step.

-During some of his naps, I noticed he would lie somewhat on his wounded side. Now, his surgical bandages are still there so that may be a buffer but it was curious to note.

-We allowed one of his younger brothers (our lab mix named Kal-El who is a little over three) to visit him for a few minutes. Kal is exceedingly empathetic and wary, so all he did was sniff and then move away. The other dog – a sixteen week old lab pup named Flynn – is being kept away because well, he’s a puppy and has puppy manners and awareness.

I can tell he feels off and weird, but my boy is in there – at one point, he stumbled over to me while I was working and put his head in my lap for his eye rubs and then dozed off. I don’t know what that means in the big picture but even getting here from where we’ve been over the last four exhausting months has been its own kind of odyssey and so every little bit of my boy brings me enormous joy.