Some Updates

So, I haven't blogged in a couple weeks. I have just been being lazy with it. Last weekend, the Burks (and Davis!) came in town to spend Saturday and Sunday with us. We had a great time visiting with them and going out-to-dinner. Davis starts nursing school at Ole Miss tomorrow, so everyone wish him Good Luck! This past week of school for me was ROUGH. It seemed that everything I did was wrong. My treatment plan was probably subpar and my group grade will probably be subpar as well. This whole PBL style learning is not my cup of tea. But, I better get the hang of it or I will be getting a big "F" for Block I; which would mean failing the year. SO, lets just PRAY that I step it up! On a MUCH happier note, Missy Prissy is doing really, really well lately. She is standing up on her own AND she has sporadically been walking. One day she took like 3 steps. The next day she didn't walk at all (my theory is she was saving up all of her energy for yesterday). And yesterday she walked on 3 different occasions! One time she only took like 4 steps, then another time she took 10 steps, and then right before bed last night, my Dad called to tell me she walked the ENTIRE length of the garage WITHOUT any help (which was about 20ft long). PRAISE THE LORD! He did say she was a little "drunk walking" BUT, anything is better than nothing. And the neurosurgeon in Starkville did say that proprioception would be the last thing to come back. So the "drunk walking" should be expected. I am so proud of my little fighter! She is on a optimistic path to recovery. Thanks to everyone for the prayers and concern over my sweet Missy Prissy!! Oh, and last night Johnny and I went to Walker's Drive In and it was FANTASTIC. Oh my gosh, my food was amazing and the atmosphere is so quaint. We loved it. It is definitely on my favorite restaurant list!

Missy Update, Kory's Bday and School

So, this past weekend, Missy was discharged at 8:00am on Saturday morning. My parents picked her up and she was in great spirits. I left Jackson around 11:00am and headed to Tupelo to help nurse Missy Prissy back to health. I got to Tupelo to find Missy acting just like she always does.....just not able to walk. :( BUT, she is still as sweet and spoiled rotten as can be. Saturday night Ben threw Kory a surprise 25th birthday party. It was so fun! I was glad I got to see a few of my best friends before school started. I didn't get to stay too long because I needed to go take care of Missy, but Ben did a great job on ordering the cake AND keeping the party a surprise! :) Ohh, and he got Kory a new bassett hound puppy. I can't WAIT to meet her! On Sunday I "played" with Missy and just snuggled with her. I had to head back to Jackson around 1. :( I didn't want to leave her and I was pretty upset when I left. But I calmed down once I got down the road.
On Monday I started school, eeeeeeeeeek! I wrote my first Tx plan....it only took me about 11 hours and it only contained 1 disease state.....so hopefully I'll get quicker. ha! It hasn't been too bad yet, but we haven't even gotten in to multiple disease states with multiple therapies....so it's only going to get stickier!
But, on a more positive note, my parents THINK that Missy might be trying to "pee pee" on her own which would be FANTASTIC. I am trying to be optimistic, yet realistic. However, my Dad says when they do her physical therapy she seems to be "pushing" a little and "twitching" her leg. So, I am still praying her nervous tissue will heal properly, that her bladder control will return and hopefully walking will return soon too. So, just keep her in your prayers. She has a long road ahead of her! I'll post some pictures of her incision later in the week when I get a little spare time. :)

Update on Missy

So, Missy's surgery was 72 hours ago. Yesterday she had a GREAT day. She had deep pain in both legs and superficial pain in her left leg. I was ecstatic. Next thing to come back after pain sensation is motor function. Well, this morning at 10:15am the Resident that is handling Missy's condition called to inform us of her progress. However, this call was not about progress, but regression. Missy has lost all deep pain sensation. They are not really sure why, and they told me "not to panic". Ha, I guess they haven't picked up on my "obsession with my little girl". I have not had a good day. I guess I need to be prepared for "good days and bad days" however, this is a very serious set back. They were going to start hydrotherapy this afternoon to see if she would respond to that. Please keep praying for my little Missy. She needs all the prayers she can get right now. Oh, and Woody (our other dachshund) is extremely depressed. They have never been separated in almost 4 years and he is having a very difficult time with her being gone. He doesn't eat, he walks around looking for her, and then he just lays in the kennel. That's another reason I keep getting upset because I can tell how sad he is too. But, all we can do now is pray and hope that it's God's will for Missy to make a recovery. Thanks for all the texts and messages with concern and well wishes!

A Freak Accident with Missy

So Johnny, me and our 3 dogs moved to Jackson on Thursday. My Dad's workers loaded the truck in Oxford, drove down I55, and arrived in Jackson with no problem. We put the dogs in their new backyard and they were having a blast. They ran and ran and ran! It was so great to see them play. Missy was having the most fun of all. She chased a couple squirrels, ran through some mud and chased Max. She was so dirty we had to bathe her Thursday night. Well, we thought everything was going great. We put Woody and Missy in the kennel and went to sleep; only to wake up to Missy being very whiny and limping on her right leg. I let her out to tee tee and I could tell it was getting noticable worse. I took her inside and put her on the couch. I couldn't decide if she had stepped on something or maybe sprained her little leg???? I just didn't know. She laid on the couch for about an hour. I then proceeded to take her outside again and to my horror, BOTH of her back legs were completely paralyzed. She couldn't walk or anything. I then proceeded to FREAK OUT. I jerked the phone up and started to call the vet, only to realize we didn't have a vet here yet. So I googled "brandon ms vets" and a few came up. I found one near our house and we flew to the vet. And this is when it got even worse. After an X-ray revealed no broken bones or tumors, the vet informed us that Missy had either slipped a disc or had a full herniated disc. She had no "superficial feeling" and VERY little "deep pain" (which meant when you pinched her little toes, she didn't feel it until you really beared down on them). We had two option:

1. try IV and high powered steroids to reduce the inflammation surrounding her spinal cord and see if the decrease in inflammation would give her some movement and control of her legs.
2. go straight to Starkville to the College of Veterinary Medicine for a CT scan and spinal surgery.

Johnny and I talked and we opted for option #1. She immediately administered her an IV steroid and put her in the doggy hospital. They said they would call us this morning and let us know her progress. Well, this morning at 10:15a.m. Dr. Jones called to tell us that there was VERY LITTLE improvement and that we should consider going to the CVM in Starkville. With me getting hysterical (for about the 100th time in 24 hours) we loaded up and took Missy to Starkville. We had a consult with one of the vets and the surgeon. They took her back and told us the best and worst case scenarios.

Worst case scenario: surgery does not work and she is still completely paralyzed in both back legs and cannot express her own bladder. This would result in us having to putting her down. I can't imagine this happening b/c it would be so hard. Her little personality is still very much there even though she can't walk or urinate. She was still barking and growling at other dogs at the vet in Jackson and she was very alert the whole drive to Starkville.

Best case scenario: surgery works, she regains the ability to walk and urinate. However, she will always have some weakness in her hind legs. But hey, I can deal with that.

The surgeon called us around 5:30p.m. and told us that Missy made it through surgery fine. Her spinal cord was 80% compressed but they were able to clear the entire canal and relieve the pressure. Her spinal cord looked good, there were no bruises or tears and it didn't seem "damaged". She is on a fentanyl drip (which is about 200x stronger than morphine) and she is resting. Her prognosis is more optimistic since her concussion to the spinal cord was not near as bad as they thought. Please, please pray that her nervous tissue surrounding her spinal cord will heal properly and quickly. She will be in ICU until late Sunday and we will not be able to pick her up until at least late Wednesday. Please keep our sweet Missy Prissy in your prayers. She is a fighter, but she could always use a few extra prayers! :)