Sally and Jerry, thank you both for your helpful replies. Lucy is a whipador! (yellow lab with some whippet) and is very lean.  The whole first week I did sleep downstairs with her in the living room where I have one of the nice memory foam beds I found on the Tripawds gear part of the website. One of the best investments every--she is comfortable on it.   Unfortunately, I didn't get much sleep that week since at age 60 I seem to need a real bed too.  We may go back to that, though, and see if she is ok if I sleep upstairs.

She has worn a multistrap harness for leash walking for the whole 3.5 years we've had her, but never one as constructed as the Webmaster one.  I really don't think it is the harness so much as wanting to control the stairs herself.  She has always been a bit scared of them, and even before the surgery would try to go up and down them in about 2 leaps.

Thank you for telling me about the Tripawd investment in rehab. There is a place about half an hour a way--I will need to get a referral, and thought I would ask for that next week, but maybe I will call today instead. 

She is alert off and on, but is clearly uncomfortable--so I think going back on the tramadol and adding the previcox was good.  Maybe a couple of days more and she will feel better--I would say that a week ago she actually seemed better than she does now, so I suspect she did hurt one of her rear legs or her back this week with the stairs. 

Thanks for the support and for the good practical advice. I'll report back next week.

Thanks for your words about Mosby--it is really helpful, and consoling, to hear about the range of responses, so that I can still believe Lucy will bounce back. Acupuncture sounds like a great addition to her treatment, so I will look into that too.

We moved an old twin mattress downstairs and i slept much better. (My husband has sleep apnea so it is much tougher to move him down).  Lucy has sat/lay down outside a lot of yesterday and today with warmer weather (50s and 60s in February) and has seemed to take some pleasure in that. Her walking is still poor and I do think she has a strain or sprain in her back right leg--one of the rehab places can't see her until March 10, unfortunately, but there is another one that requires vet referrals so I will try that tomorrow.  One day at a time, right?  We had a friend drop by yesterday for 15 minutes and it was the most animated we'd seen Lucy--she was even talking again, which she hasn't done just with us, so that also was encouraging.

Karen, that is very helpful advice re the mast cell issue.  It seems that this is just an odd case, according to both the pathologist and the oncologist: lots of white blood cells but no other indication.  We don't think she had a mast cell tumor, as none of us, including the vets, every felt one--so that is why they suggested that we wait and see if taking out the lymph node resolved things.   Lucy is eating ok, drinking a little less than usual (but she is also getting more "wet" food too) and enjoyed being outside in the sun and 60 degree weather this weekend.

The addition of the NSAID seems to have done a lot of good: she was walking around the yard yesterday voluntarily which she had avoided doing for the previous week.

Now we are four weeks out from Lucy's surgery, and this week saw the big turnaround. Following all the good advice, I took her to a rehab specialist--a great vet who is also trained as a chiropractor and acupuncturist.  He tweaked her gently (so gently I didn't even catch on that he was making adjustments)  gave her some supplements for stomach/intestinal health, and put her back on gabapentin (and off tramadol). She slept in the car during the half hour ride home, and ever since then has been so much more energetic and--herself. She doesn't look as tight and hunched over when she walks anymore--so we think the pain has gone down considerably.  We are now starting to take her out on short walks in addition to letting her out in the yard (we have an invisible fence).  She is annoyed that we aren't going further than a block yet on the walks but better safe than sorry.  We probably got too large a Ruffwear harness , and the smaller one just arrived; after we get her used to that we will try the steps up to the second floor of our house again. (And then I can start sleeping upstairs again too!) She has begun to pick up her toys and want to play a bit, and to chew on her nylabone too.  Thanks to all again for your advice and support--it has made a real difference.