Last night we visited Layla and she was so awake and happy! She gave us kisses all over! Her IV was gone and her leg was pretty bruised, but she was moved out of ICU yesterday. We brought her some kibble and some treats, as well as a few toys from home and a shirt I had slept in since the night she got this way...
First of all, when she smelled the treats, she almost dragged herself right off my legs to get to them! She's still pretty shaky standing on her front legs, and doesn't realize she'll fall over when she lifts one leg. But we managed to feed her a couple of kibbles and a treat. After about the first hour, I switched her to her daddy's lap and she laid down for a bit but started crying. We helped her up and she dragged herself right back over to mommy's lap and collapsed in my arms.
As she was laying there, Scott started playing with her back feet, and she was watching him. When he squeezed, she had a very pronounced movement of pulling her leg back away from him. She continued to do that while she watched. I don't know if that's still considered 100% reflex, but the movements the day before were just very slight twitches of her leg or tail. She soon turned her head away from us and started to fall asleep, and the only reflexes we got at that point were again just twitches of her thigh and tail.
The physical therapy person talked to us and let us know she started Layla's first session of acupuncture yesterday, and that it was very easy because she could work the needles in quite hard and Layla can't feel a thing past her shoulders. She also did electroacupuncture from the area of her neck to her tail and Layla fell asleep
She said she was dreaming because her breathing was different and when she woke up it went back to normal
After our two hour visit, we put her on the floor for a bit. Scott lifted up her back end a little and she started moving her front paws. I had an idea so I took the t-shirt we brought, rolled it up, and put it just in front of her back legs and lifted. Wow! As soon as that back end was off the ground, she was motoring all over the place! It made me so happy to see her just like a regular dog, except with her back feet dragging on the ground.
The doctor told us that she would be able to come home Saturday if we're ready. And we're not sure that we're ready yet. I'm scared that I will not be able to give her as much care as she is getting there. She wants to see Layla at least 3 times a week for physical therapy but as of right now she's always watched and gets physical therapy EVERY DAY. I'm scared that I won't be able to express her or I won't do it right, and what if she cries at night because she wants on the bed? Will she cry if she wants to change sleeping positions? I just want her in the best care possible and I don't have enough confidence in myself yet.
Oh and other good news is that it's not a bad sign that she's not getting better yet, but it's a good sign that she's not any worse. With a paralyzation as severe as hers, they are expecting to see improvement in the next 4 weeks if any will occur. And if it does, it will probably be near the end of 4 weeks. There's still a 50% chance.
Last night I had a very vivid dream that Layla just got up and walked around the house. When I woke up I was so excited to see my miracle baby, and it took a few minutes to realize it wasn't real. And I cried.