Thank you all. You helped calm me some. I'm still really concerned, but you've given me some hope back. Jerry, that's true the pain can present in an area other than where the problem is. And we know that nothing with Cora goes normally, so that's something to hold onto

The brain damage she has just complicates things so much. R&R is a great concept but she's made that so hard. She fights going into the kennel now and the only way to get her in seems to cause her pain. So I made a pen for her where I can just pick her up and lay her gently in. That was working until things went down hill.  Now she will wake up in pain and start thrashing around and making everything worse for herself.

I haven't seen her in this much pain since she injured her stump (you all who are long time members may remember). And I'm not sure it was this bad then. It's breaking my freaking heart. Add she's noisy and vocal when she's hurting so she's stressed, she's stressing me and the other animals. And none of us have slept well as a result. We got about 6 hours or so last night which was pretty good. Then she woke crying and barking and that kept up. She was so worked up, that when I tried to give her the tramadol she ended up inhaling it and coughed it back up because she was just barking non-stop. That's sort of how things have been going for the last few days. The tramadol does help though and right now she's in the yard and I'm letting her be out because for tonight, I just want her to be happy. Tomorrow will be the day to figure out what's next.

And yes, I work in a vet office and most days I love it. It's definitely intense and has great days and hard days. Almost every day has a puppy though, so that's good.

Ok, it ended up being an extremely long day but Cora is home. And now I'm going to babble. Her blood work looked good. She has some arthritis in her right hip but not too bad. She is also dealing with wind up pain. So basically, here nervous system has become over activated to sensation and interpreting it as pain. She has always had some over sensitivity to certain types of pain and showed signs of phantom limb pain. I think the developing arthritis and then the fall she took pushed her over an edge. 

She got sedated for the x-ray and she seemed to be under but when we moved her onto the x-ray machine and the tech was trying to take measurements she was barking and getting upset. She wasn't moving much but she wasn't super still either. The doctor gave her a bit more sedative and that worked. So, she and I were hanging out in one of the exam rooms together. I was just laying with her. I and many people like this doctor because he's very experienced, thoughtful and caring. The downside is, he doesn't like to say no to anyone and can get backed up and spread thin. So we had a wait. That's when the doctor came in and we took a look at the x-rays. 

Then he gave her another injection to help wake her up. Then they went to run her blood. As she was waking up, she kept snapping her jaw and just wasn't right. She'd be ok and quiet and then she'd just start snapping. It was getting worse and I told the doctor but I don't know if it fully registered. Then they thought they'd have to draw more blood (poor baby) and she flipped. She bit me and was ready to bite anyone. It was awful. They finally said they could work with the blood she'd gotten. She was just so weird and out of it and the only time she was calm was if I was basically lying on her. Even then she'd go through periods of biting the blanket. She just wasn't herself.  

So the doctor and I talked about the option of giving her yet another med. Neither of us were thrilled because of all the meds in her system and not knowing how she'd react. I finally said yes, because she wasn't improving and it could be hours before she would if we waited and she was so obviously distressed. So he did and she calmed down... and her heart rate dropped too low so she got more medicine. 

Umm... so. Just a wee bit stressful. I know this is why her old/other vet has always been so cautious about doing anything with her. Because with the brain damage and all, it's hard to predict how she will react to routine things.

But the dr says we can go way up in the amount of gabapnetin and there's other things we can try. And if we can get her calmed down  and the pain level down then we can work on long term options. I am willing to do manual therapy with her but at this point she simply won't cooperate. 

So, she's still super sedated but I took her home. I have the doctor's cell phone am supposed to text him updates. heh. he said, "Not that I'm worried. Her heart rate is ok." and then says text me so I don't worry. 

And now I'm going to check on her and then pour myself a stiff drink.