[linz06]

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU for all of your prayers. I know they have helped.

I tried to update earlier on my bf's cell but it just wouldn't go through. I didn't want to leave the city until I knew she was out of surgery and doing well.

Well, when we first got her in, they ran some tests and came back to tell us she did not show deep pain in her feet when they tried. She didn't show any signs that she knew anything was happening in her legs. That's when they figured her chance to walk again has gone from 80% to 50%. They went through some possibilities and it was really hard to hear and my boyfriend and I were both bawling. They said surgery may not work depending on the prognosis but I said we're going ahead with surgery. We have to try.

We waited the LONGEST HOURS EVER for a phone call. I thought we could just stay at my grandma's house and it turns out she wasn't home! So we sat in her back yard for hours because we had nowhere else to go in the city. Then we went to pick up my boyfriend's car from his work (he went in this morning until I got the call to take Layla to the hospital), and while there we finally got the call from the hospital vet... they had found ONE spot with a lot of compression and they knew exactly where to go in. There would be some solids pressing on the spinal cord that they would do their best to remove. They were prepping the operating room and she would go into surgery within half an hour. That was fantastic news, the best we could have hoped for. I called our vet at home with an update and she was so happy and said she and her tech had literally JUST finished praying for Layla and the surgeons, and it was fantastic news and she was so relieved that there was only one spot in question. Oh, and she was also surprised that Layla showed no deep pain, because she definitely did when we dropped her off this morning. More great news... it would have only been a few hours that she had lost feeling.

Not long after driving back to my grandma's, she finally came home! So I went upstairs for some much needed sleep. After about an hour the phone rang and it was the surgeon, letting me know the surgery lasted a little longer than expected because when they went in they found more stuff to remove on the next vertebrae up as well. But she came through surgery well and her spinal cord was sitting nicely where it should be. She was in ICU getting ready to wake up. They would keep her on pain meds for the night and begin assessment tomorrow. All they care about for now is that she's not worse than she was this morning. And they would be ecstatic if she could regain feeling in her legs in the next few days, but it all depends on how well her nerves will rebuild.

At this point, I don't care if she walks again. I don't care if she's on a cart. My biggest worry is that she will be able to potty on her own. If she can do that, we can deal with whatever mobility issues she may have. Today has been such a rollercoaster and I am just feeling nauseous from all the emotions that have been running through me.

Please keep the prayers coming, they are definitely working. Everything so far has worked out for the best but she is not out of the woods yet. She will be there still for weeks of rehabilitation and I am praying so hard that she will make it out of this okay. She is only 4 years old and has the rest of her life ahead of her.