My New Car

So, Austin and I have been talking for a while about getting me a new car.  Something bigger.  We were thisclose to buying one but hadn't made our final decision yet.  Wednesday night we sat down and worked out our budget and figured out exactly how much we wanted to spend for this new car.

Ironically the day after our "budget meeting" I came home from work thinking I was going to relax, hang out and watch Grey's Anatomy and The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.  Yeah, did NOT happen. 

My new cars name is Brody.  ;)

When I came home B didn't greet me like he usually does.  I was looking for him and walked into the kitchen and saw that he had gone to the bathroom in the kitchen and I could tell that he either sat/stepped in it.  VERY unusual.  Brody has the entire house to roam around while we are gone because he is such a well behaved dog that we never worry about anything.  So, when I saw the mess, I figured that he must really have had to go and he might have a stomach bug or something.  I found him on the kitchen mat sitting really strange, so strange that I took the picture with my phone to send to Austin.  

He was sitting upright and when I picked him up he was very tense.  I took him outside to go the bathroom and he couldn't use his back legs.  It was 5:30pm.  I called our vet and luckily he's open until 7pm on Thursday so off we went.

All of my pictures are from my cell phone so they aren't that great.  

I get to the vet thinking B has a stomach virus.  Oh no.  Immediately the Dr comes in and says we have a problem and Brody needs to see a neurologist right away because his back half of his body isn't communicating with his front half and he could have certain brain conditions, a tumor either on his brain or spine, Meningitis or a slipped disk in the back or neck.  This is why he went to the bathroom in the house, he didn't have control over his back half.  He needs tests run to figure out what exactly the problem is and normal vets don't have the equipment to do that.  Within oh, 2 minutes I'm standing in the vets office in front of the Dr and his helper guy just crying thinking my dog is going to die.  Austin gets to the vet shortly after that and we are given the option of two places we can take B.  One is 45 minutes away and he can't get in until Friday and the other is Texas A&M vet school and is 1.5 hours away and he can get in that night.  For those who don't know, A&M has one of the best vet programs in the country so we're pretty lucky to be so close and they recommended we get him in ASAP because his condition could deteriorate quickly so off we go.  We didn't know where we were staying or how long we were going to be there but we headed home to get a bag and got on the road.  

Poor baby was in pain the entire way.  :(  The vet had taken an x-ray of him while we were there and they couldn't see a problem with his spine clearly so we weren't thinking that the best option was going to be a possibility.  You'll have to excuse my red face, I spend a good majority of the ride crying thinking the "what ifs" of him having Meningitis or a tumor.  I think Austin spent the majority of the ride silently calculating the estimates our vet gave us to how much we need to be prepared to spend.  He didn't bring this up to me, he knew better.  ;)

We get to the vet hospital around 10:30pm and they dope B up and tell us the good news that they think he DOES have a slipped or herniated disk in his back which just couldn't be seen in the x-ray.  They are going to keep him medicated overnight and monitor his condition and then he will get a MRI and spinal tap (to check for Meningitis) in the morning and then he immediately will be taken into surgery.  

Mr. B all doped up.  He was much happier.  :)

Friday morning we headed back to the hospital and got the GREAT news that he DID in fact have a non compressive herniated disk and he did NOT need surgery!!  We were SOOO happy!  We were just praying for the best outcome that we were told and that was the problem with his back and it could be fixed with surgery but to hear he didn't have to have surgery was AWESOME!!  We headed back for the drive home because we weren't allowed to see him since he was still under anesthesia but we could come back the next morning to pick him up and bring him home.

Saturday B slept ALL day, you can see how doped up he was

And he snored...

So, for the next month Mr. B is on strict bed rest so his spine can heal and then after that no more jumping on/off the furniture.  Ever.  It's going to be quite the challenge but it's worth it.  If he's not in his little room, then he has to be either held or laying down, no walking around for a month.  

B hanging out in his room

His new haircut

Sleepy little guy

So, that sums up my weekend that turned out anything BUT relaxing!  Spending 6 hours in the car can exhaust you.  Spending WAY more than we budgeted on Brody was well worth it instead of getting a new car.  He's way more important.  :)  He's pretty still right now and doped up but I have a feeling in about a week we're going to have a pretty restless and bored little dog on our hands.  Wish us luck!