We went and had the stitches taken out today.  Levi is still not a very happy pup.  Vet thinks we are not controlling the pain enough.  OMGosh, we are doing 6 Tramadol a Day, One Previcox, One Gabapentin bedtime, and now up to 3 Methocarbamol a day.  We just "upped" things today.  We are hoping he'll be ready for his Chemo Tuesday.  I hate to make him feel like crap again with the Chemo but we decided that if we are going down the "try to save him" path then we are going to try everything…

The good news is that Levi has his brief moments where I see my happy boy.  Physically he seems fine. We go on off leash walks behind the house.  He naviagtes our stairs beautifully, and he can jump on our bed to wake us up in the morning like usual (this usually isn't neccisarily welcome :) )

I'm really hoping another 4–5 days and I'll really be feeling better about things.

Thanks for listening

We are sending healing thoughts your way!

Have you tried icing him? We used to do "ice therapy" with Bo. Ice pack/dish towel on the incision for 10-15 min. Bo would also chew on some ice cubes during this. Tried to do it around med time so he could have an ETGayle medicinal nap too.

Come here and vent all you want. We understand…it's tough. We hope that Levi gets to feeling like his old self soon!

Okay, take this for whatever it's worth and I don't want to second-guess your vet because I'm not one.  But Tate had a hemipelvectomy, his rear leg and half his pelvis – very radical surgery.  Stitches came out on Day 13, the surgeon said he was all healed up inside and didn't need pain meds any more.  I can't say with 100% certainty that he didn't experience any pain but he didn't ever act like he was in pain and was a lot better without all the drugs in his system.  Just some food for thought.  It's such a struggle, you don't want them in pain but you want them back to their happy selves, too.

As far as starting chemo, Tate didn't have any side effects until after the third treatment.  The effects are cumulative so the initial dose might not be a problem.  After the first dose, he slept a lot on the second day.  Second dose, you'd never know he was on chemo.  So hopefully Levi will do fine, too.

Hang in there, and keep us posted.  I'm guessing those brief moments will become more and more frequent until they all run together!

Jan & Tate

Interesting. Our vet had us do the opposite with the pain meds…she told us to slowly decrease pills in the few days before his staples were removed (10 days post op). So his last dose of pain meds was the morning he had his staples out. That afternoon, I felt like we finally had our Rumbles back. He was more active and engaged…and never showed any sign of pain or distress. I'm sure it was a combo of getting those uncomfortable staples out + emerging from the fog of the medication.