Kim, Overall, I think she's just having some speedbumps, nothing that can't be managed.

Dr Desch feels this is her way of presenting phantom pain . When she has an "episode" she shreiks in pain, rears her body up on her rear legs & controts her body in a strange shape. These only last a few seconds then she is ok. They have gotten a little better as time has passed. We all felt she just needed a little more pain relief for a while longer.

Overall, she is doing wonderful. She's eating great (we've not had any eating issues), going outdoors to potty, wanting water and her treats. Her incision is looking real good and had quite a bit of visible healing. Her seromas have re-absorbed.

Tonight, I put all the other dogs away so she could just sit out by herself. I was passing out pig ears to the crated ones & found her behind me asking for one herself! She took her piggy ear, laid on one of our many pillows & happily ate her piggy's ear.

Everything is actually going great except for her pain episodes which I'm sure will pass with some time. I spoke with a lady who has had amputation and phantom pain and she said she got some relief when someone would massage her reamining leg, maybe the nerve signals then go to that leg? Don't know. I think that tomorrow, I will start massaging her remaining legs a couple of times a day. Certainly can't hurt, that's for sure.

Thanks for your good wishes & concern.

Janie & Calamity

Calamity had a very bad spell with her phantom pain late last night - I had a meltdown once again. We got her to her bedroom & let her sleep.

This morning WOW what a difference than the past week. She got up without any pain and outside - no pain! She went potty and walked the entire yard. This si the most she has walked since her surgery. I watched her and waited to see her rear up when her pain hit, but no. No morning pain at all!

Back inside, one of the young ones bumped into to her & she let out a yelp, but it was not the intense, rear-up pain that she has been having.

I'm excited at the good morning we have had & just had to share. I hopp today continues just like it has started.

Janie & Calamity

It's been a few days since I posted anything about Calamity so thought I'd share her progress.

She's been getting around a lot better & becoming more active.

I removed her second fentanyl patch on Saturday & reduced her tramadol to one tablet twice daily. She still gets one gabapentin in the morning and metacam in the evening. This seems to keep the edge off of the pain and she only has a few little yipes daily now. This are nothing like the gut wrnching crys she had before.

At 11 days post op-her meds schedule goes like this:
Breakfast: 1 gabapentin, 1 cephalaxin, 1 tramadol
Dinner: 1 tramadol, 1 cephalixin, 1 dose metacam, 1/2t GLC (her glucosomine)

We have a crate set up in the living room for her to go into with the door opened always so she can come & go at will. Yesterday & this morning, she has not wanted to even be in there, now I find the others taking turns laying in it!

Last night she "cockroached" for the first time since her surgery! A true sign, to me, that she is begining to get back to her old self.

At bedtime last night, she fought my husband & myself to not go into the crate room for the night! She played every trick she knew! We will keep her in there nightly until her staples come ont so she can not get hurt byt the others while we sleep. She was sure a pistol, I tell ya!

Her staples come out Wednesday morning (she has 44 of them). I think that will make a big difference in a lot of her movement.

Jerry told us to hang in there & take it one day at a time....we did. Some of the days were very hard & I cried many times. If anyone ever thinks this is a breeze, they are only kidding themselves, it's tough & emotional, but it is a short time in the big picture of their lives.

Now things we are looking at for the future is how we will deal with her when/if she develops LS (as most greyhounds do). I have found a very good vet who advocates chiropractics, acupuncture & homopathic medicine, I believe we will start taking Calamity to her to make sure she is getting the best care we can give her to insure she will have a wonderful life as a tripawed.

I'm so relieved we seem to be out of the woods.

Janie & Calamity