What a week!

 Have you heard the expression 'that was a game of two halves'?  Where a situation changes quite dramatically in a short space of time. Well that sums up my last week.

First the good part where I met my pen friend in London. We had such a lovely day and the weather could not have been more perfect (and unlike a typical British November day!) We met at the Eros statue in Picadilly Circus, then walked down to Trafalgar Square.  Had a gluhwein at a German Christmas market, walked down to the Millenium Bridge, enjoying the sights as we walked from one side of the Thames to the other. We found a lovely traditional British pub for lunch.  Then we went through Borough Market and wandered around that area in the afternoon before reluctantly saying goodbye and going our separate ways.  It was SO lovely to see her and her husband and the hours just flew by.  I even got to see some places I'd never visited before, like China Town!

But the next day was definitely not so good.  Coco had us awake at 4am trying to go downstairs but unable to manage the steps.  I had to go and pick her up and in my half sleep and without wearing my glasses I stupidly tried to carry her downstairs.  I got about four steps from the bottom when I overbalanced (it's not easy carrying 10kgs of dog when you're not really awake) and slipped down the rest of the stairs.  I let her out in the garden but something was obviously wrong with her.  We made an urgent appointment with the vet as soon as they opened and rang Rachel to let her know that we were seriously worried about her.  She immediately got in the car to come over - Coco was originally her dog - and the three of us drove to the vets.  

The vet said she was in a lot of pain in her back but she seemed otherwise to be in good health so would we like to try to medicate her to see if it were nerve related.  She couldn't say what was causing it and to find out exactly what it was would require an MRI which she would not recommend as it would require anesthesia which you want to avoid in an elderly dog. By now all three of us are in tears as we honestly thought we were going to have to make a big decision that we didn't want to make. If the medication didn’t help we would have no option but to make that decision.

So she is now on a couple of strong painkillers and anti inflammatory pills and thankfully she seems to be responding to them.  It has been a hell of a weekend desperately hoping to see an improvement.

Here’s hoping she continues to respond to her tablets and that her poor back feels better soon. It’s been a horrible weekend, watching her every move and we must have cried pints of tears on Friday. Keep improving, Coco 😘