I'm too tired, too stressed, and too worried to write a long-winded post about what's been going on with our pup Charlie. We have an appointment tomorrow morning with the surgeon who did the amp and who has been amazing to figure out what to do next and until then I thought I'd just post what's been happening and see if anyone can relate.

The back story on Chuck can be found here: http://tripawds.....t-charlie/

Short version, front leg was amputated last June for a bone tumor. Suspected osteocarsanoma turned out to be fibrocarsanoma after review by two pathologists (our surgeon seriously was amazing and wouldn't stop until we had answers).

Charlie has arthritis in his hind hips that was probably there before the surgery and quickly it festered after. We responded really, really well to Rimydal but what was supposed to be a "as needed" medication has turned into a maintenance med. (this next part is still hard for me to talk about without getting sick to my stomach).

Because Rimydal is pretty expensive through the vet we got a RX for Novox and ordered online. By this time Charlie was having a hard time getting around, during the day I'm a stay-at-home dad to our toddler son and at night I do contract work so I was tired. Really, really tired. There's no easy way to say it but I screwed Charlies dosage up for the Novox even though it was right there on the bottle. For three days he received double the dose he should have. At first things were great, then we started seeing troublesome signs, took him for a checkup and that's when I learned what I had done. Thankfully after a full blood workup there doesn't appear to be any liver or kidney damage...phew. Ok. 

It's been over two weeks since then and his appetite hasn't come back. The vet put him on pepcid, a pill for the stomach lining, anti biotic (he had a slight temp), tramadol, and when his appetite returned we were to continue novox. we had stopped the novox immediately when we learned about my error which caused him to go from feeling great in the hips, to reality, to pain.

He's barely using his left hind leg and is almost bipedal at this point. He has to compensate by turning his one front shoulder outward but leaned in...it's not good. This isn't Charlie. It's incredibly hard to get him to move around. And then, he has moments where he goes out into the front yard, picks up a big rotted log and tows it into the backyard like he was fine. I'm hand feeding him though to get something in him. Yeah, yeah, behaviorally this isn't good for him but I don't care if he's being lazy as long as he eats at this point. I need to get him back to what ever his new normal means then I'll fix any issues I'm causing by hand feeding him, laying next to him in the middle of the night with the heating pad and bringing him his water. 

We hide his ball and he'll get up to go find it once, then back to his chair. I just don't know what I'm doing anymore. After screwing up his meds I feel like everything I'm doing isn't working. My wife and I both are at a loss and we're not looking to tomorrow's appointment for any answers other than maybe this will pass...

At this point we're asking ourselves what quality of life means for Charlie. Having him since he was 5 1/2 weeks old and my wife being with him the last 6 years, we know that right now, this isn't a good quality of life. He's not the type of dog to hang out in one spot. His lungs sound clear from the last vet appointment a week ago. Blood work is spot-on, gums are good, stool is consistent with what was his normal waste, he's drinking water, no weird smell on his breath, no abdominal tenderness, no attitude change..just doesn't seem to want to move much and uses a leg more has a balance tool than a leg most of the time. 

I guess I'm not really looking for anyone who can relate, we all have been down similar roads and this seemed to have turned into more of a vent than anything. So if you made it this far, thanks!  Hopefully tomorrow doesn't go how I fear it may.