Sigh.

I am not doing so well.  I was enjoying the new house so much.  Even though I have arthritis and have to use stairs to get on the couch, I can jump up there if I want to.  I'm just not supposed to.  I can do up and down the stairs, take walks outside and I love to play.  I never felt like anything slowed me down.

Until now.

Last year, I had some neck problems.  Not sure why, but it started hurting and I could move it around well.  My parents were going out of town and had to board me at the vet's where I was on strict rest and pain pills.  After a couple weeks, I was better and my old self again.  I just had to avoid neck injuries.  I got over it and it seemed like a distant memory.  Then, last weekend, for some reason, it flared up again.  All of a sudden, I was afraid to move around.  Mommy and Daddy were scared because I was acting weird.  They took me to the vet on Monday morning and they figured out that it was my neck, not my old hip injury.  They put me on anti-inflammatories and I was feeling much better.  I did my usual activities for the next two days.  Maybe that was the wrong thing to do, I don't know.  What I DO know is that by day three, I cried out in pain whenever I bent my head down.  It was hard to eat and walk.  They took me back to the vet where they did Xrays and gave me a shot of narcotics, but I got no better.  I had a miserable night, sleeping on the living room floor, because I would not let Daddy carry me up the stairs to bed.  The next morning, we went straight to the ortho doctor I saw last year.  He took a look at me and had the neurologist come in.  Luckily, I didn't seem to have any neurological damage but he needed to get more information.  They put me under and did an MRI and a spinal tap.  They were ruling out tumors, slipped discs and inflammation.  It looked like slipped discs so medication was recommended.  I was so miserable when I came home.  In more pain, disoriented, tired and unhappy.  Trying to get me home was tough because I cried out in pain when the doctor brought me out, when I was moved from the chair and when I was put in the car.  Mommy and Daddy stopped at the pet store to get me a pet carrier to get me in and out of the house and up and down the stairs, as even 2 or 3 stairs would make me cry in pain.  Then they went to the drugstore to get my new medicines.  I'm taking a pill for nerve pain, a pain pill and the anti-inflammatory.  I can't do any stairs and spend most of the day lying around.  I go in the pet carrier when I want to go out.  They feed me from their hands so I don't bend my head down too much.  I still have an appetite, though!  I may feel like I'm at Death's door, but I ain't dead yet.