Boomer was diagnosed with a disc herniation between L3-L4 on his left side.
Saturday, May 31, 2014 Justin picked me up from the airport with Boomer in-tow. Boomer wasn't his usual self: sticking his head out the window, or happily jumping into my lap when I got in the car. He just seemed a little off, but we thought it was because he had a great day of play over at the Smith's house chasing a squirrel on the fence. He put his head out the window once in my lap and we drove home. When getting home, I lifted Boom out of the car and put him in the grass to go out. He slowly walked through the grass and then down off the curb and to our mailbox across the street. He wasn't keen on jumping up on the curb to get to the house, nor did he want to walk up the stairs. We thought that he might have gotten squished by Angus-- the 1.5 year old Newfoundland that he played with earlier in the day and might be causing him pain.
So, we carried him up the three stairs into the house and got settled. We took him out into the backyard with the same results of him just slowly walking around and not wanting to come up the stairs. Again, when we were back in the house ready for bed he did not want to climb the stairs to our bedroom. Boomer was carried up the stairs and placed in our bed where I researched Dog Joint Pain Relief because his back legs we really tight. Justin did a little massage on him and then we all went to sleep.
5AM came early on June 1st. I heard Boomer's tag on his collar jingling. He was moving around our bedroom. I heard him on the other side of the bed, then he stopped, then he moved over to his little bed on the floor by my side of the bed. I glanced over in the darkness and saw him sitting then, but a few moments later I heard his jingling again and he had backed himself into the corner of our bedroom and his hind legs were rigid. I immediately woke Justin, alerted him to Boomer's issue, and researched 24 hour Vets that were near us. We grabbed Boom and raced to the Vet that was by our old townhouse in Durham. They took Boomer in and examined him while we paced in the waiting room. It was one of the hardest things to do is just wait for Boomer. Usually when he goes to the vet you get to go into the exam room with him, but not here. We were left to fill out paperwork and wait.
We waited and waited and waited. It seemed like forever until the young brunette doctor emerged from behind the key coded door by the reception desk. Even though we were the only people in the waiting room at 6:30 AM she took us into an exam room and explained what she thought was wrong with Boomer. They had given him a shot of a pain killer and said that they were concerned about his functioning. She said she would bend his back paws over and he was slow to return them to the usual positioning and this concerned her. At this point he was semi-ambulatory. We asked how dire the situation was and she wasn't too concerned. They wanted to do X-Rays to look for a fracture in his back and then keep him to monitor him for the day.
Justin and I discussed and Justin wanted to take Boomer home and monitor him on our own time. We figured that we could see if he was having difficulties and that Boom would be more comfortable being monitored at home. So, we got 3 different kinds of medications with his discharge papers: Gabapentin, Meloxicam, and Tramidol. When Boomer was brought out from the key carded back room, they told us the best way to hold him was like a log. One arm under his chest and the other under his pelvis. So off we went in the car, me holding Boomer like a log and getting one heck of an arm work out all the way home. Boomer came home and we tried to stand him in the grass to use the restroom and he did not put any weight on his back paws and would just fall over. I was concerned at this point and we brought Boomer in the house.
Boomer was all set up on his big bed on the floor and we were taking turns laying with him. He just didn't look okay laying in his bed. His head was in such an odd position and he was looking woozy. We thought it might be from the meds that the first vet gave him but we didn't know. I hated how much pain he looked like he was in and I knew it wasn't something that we could just monitor on our own.
I laid in the backseat of the car with Boomer in his bed as Justin listened to the directions on his phone. We tried talking with Boomer and making sure that he was okay and he knew that we were there with him. He was mostly alert but I think still feeling the medication that had been put in him. We made so many turns and they weren't good for his little body. It was hard trying to stabilize him in the backseat. But we made it to the clinic in Cary and carried him in like a log.
A Senior Vet Tech quickly let us enter into the building and then into an exam room. He took Boomer from us and started doing a check-up. Luckily this time we were allowed to be in the exam room with Boomer and got to watch as his deteriorated right before our eyes. The tech took Boomer out of the room and into the back hall where he tried to get him to walk. After only a few minutes without Boomer, the tech returned and so did the doctor. She told us that he had no functionality of his back legs. And when she flipped his paw under he wouldn't turn it back over. He had no feeling left in his rear paws. She told us it wasn't good. She mentioned the word euthanasia and I lost it right then and there. Waterworks were in full force. I wasn't consolable. I believe I started hyperventilating. Justin and I started taking pictures with Boomer as our last pictures with him.
We didn't know what to expect. A lot of what was happening just became a blur to me. She started poking at Boomer and pinching his paws with forceps and he wasn't doing anything. She said that if she pinched he should look back at her and he wasn't doing anything. It wasn't good.
She did give us one option. We could got get an MRI over at NC State Veterinary School and they could see if there would be anything that they would be able to do for him. Justin and I agreed and didn't care at this point what it was going to take. We were open for any option that wasn't euthanasia. Boomer is only 7 years old and it is not the time for him to leave this planet. He's got a lot more living to do and we need to keep him here so he can do those things. Justin and I sat in the exam room with Boomer as the vet went and called NC State to let them know that we were coming. Justin and I talked through so many things at that point just holding our sweet Boomer. He was still smiling and happy. He had no idea what was happening to him.
After what seemed like an hour she came back in and told us that they were doing MRIs on a Sunday and that Boomer could be seen today. We got all of the paperwork done with them, got Boomer in the car and then off we were to NC State. Again, I was laying in the backseat of the car holding onto our dog. I couldn't believe how quickly everything changed with him. I called my dad. I'm sure he couldn't understand any words that were coming out of me. As a matter of fact, I couldn't talk to anyone without just bursting into tears, so Justin had to do most of the talking and explaining to both sets of parents. Justin was a champ following the paper directions to the Vet School while I cried in the backseat holding onto Boomer as we rounded corners.
We got to the Vet School, carried Boomer in like a log again and filled out the third set of paperwork about him as he got his third check-up for the day. We were now about 6 hours into our day. We met William, the vet school student who greeted us and took a bit of a history about what had happened to Boomer. We sat in a small exam room and gave all the information that we could. We still didn't know what was causing this to happen to Boomer or if there was one trauma that could have cause this quick onset of paralysis of his hind legs.
After William got all of his information we waited. Country music videos were playing on the screen in the waiting room and Ginger, the receptionist quickly answered phone calls as they came in. We waited for our turn and any information on Boomer. Finally William came out and brought us into an exam room where they had a white board. The doctor on call started to explain what she thought was wrong with Boomer and told us that we couldn't tell for sure until we got an MRI what exactly was going wrong in there. She knew at this point that it was a spinal cord injury but we needed to figure out what had caused the injury. She explained to us (Justin's mom had joined us at the Vet School) that the spinal cord was like an onion with layers. At this point, Boomer's functioning had gone through all of the layers to where he cannot feel deep pain. This was the worst thing that we could hear. He was in the worst possible situation. We were explained the different options between an X-Ray, a CT Scan or an MRI. Obviously the most expensive but best picture of what was going on is the MRI. We decided that we were already here and that's what we were here for so go ahead with the MRI. We signed all of the paper work that said we understood all of the risks involved and signed all the paperwork. We were informed at this time that there might be a study that would be applicable to Boomer, but we didn't get much about the study. We knew we were moving forward with the MRI. There were a number of options at this point that could be causing this issue with Boomer: disc herniation, Tumor, disease. The worst case scenario would be a tumor. We asked if we could see Boomer before he was taken back for his MRI. We were granted the wish and we took a few pictures with our boy.
We were called again into another exam room by Dr. Olby. Dr. Olby was running the study that was mentioned earlier. She is a Neurology Specialist. The Phase 1 Clinical Trial of GGF2 in Dogs with Disc-Induced Acute Spinal Cord Injuries was what was presented to us. Dr. Olby said that if Boomer has a disc injury as what they except that he has would allow him to qualify for this study. We went through all that the study would entail and what they are looking to do. Nancy asked if there was any reason that we shouldn't be involved in the study and she said no. So we took all of the paperwork out into the lobby and read what it meant. We signed the paperwork and turned it in. Soon after Dr. Bray who was working with Dr. Olby called us into the room and told us that we had another option. She told us that they might be able to just do an X-Ray for $100 and then do the CT Scan and it might get just what they need to see instead of just going for the MRI. We decided to take that option and the X-Ray only took 15 minutes to hear back the results. So we stayed and waited to hear what happened.
After about a half an hour we were told that the X-Ray results were not conclusive enough and that the MRI would still be our best bet to find out what was going on. We did find from the X-Ray that Boomer had many calcified discs and that they were able to do a process called Fenstration that will help to alleviate the other discs and hopefully stop this from happening again. So, we moved forward with the MRI and knew that Boomer would immediately be going into surgery if they found something on the MRI. The MRI was going to start in an hour and then it would take an hour to read the MRI. At this point it was 1:15 and we hadn't eaten anything so we left Boomer in the best hands and knew that we needed to pray that he would be okay.
We went back to the Smith's house in Raleigh so that we could be close if anything were to happen. So we waited. It got to be around 3:15 and I was nervous that we hadn't heard anything. Around 3:30 the phone rang and we all nervously listened to what was said. Boomer had a herniated disc between T3&T4 on his left side. The doctors would be able to operate on it and he would be part of the study. They were going to take him directly into surgery because he was already under anesthesia. They moved forward and told us that the surgery and everything wouldn't be over until around 8PM. So again, we sat and waited. We nervously watched TV and couldn't sleep even though we were exhausted. At 7:30 the phone rang and we all sat up. Dr. Olby called and let us know that she had just scrubbed out of surgery. They were able to remove the disc and do the frenstration as they had hoped. She was concerned that his spinal cord was very swollen and bruised. There is a 15% chance that because of where his spinal cord was injured that the rest of the cord would begin to deteriorate and eventually die. Dr. Olby let us know that once he made it to the 5 day mark that the spinal cord dying would be less of an issue but we need to know that it is a possibility.
Dr. Bray called us after 8PM as we were on our way home and let us know that Boomer was done with surgery and that he was out of anesthesia. He did fine and that we could come tomorrow to visit him in the afternoon. Visiting hours were between 3-5 and we were welcome whenever. The surgery went as best as we could hope for and now we just had to wait to hear how he was in the morning.
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