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Ellie has a blown disc in her neck, just below where her collar rests. Apparently it's a common problem for dobermans. Her whole shoulder area is in massive spasm and there is a pinched nerve affecting her left front leg. Our wonderful vet, Margot says she should recover just fine with bed rest, limited activity for a few weeks, and lots of serious strong medicines. She's on Vicadin and Valium every 4-6 hours. So far, 4 hours seems to be too long for her stand it. Margot gave me permission to give her more meds as needed. Poor baby girl! The confusion she was experiencing was supposedly from the extreme pain, and not knowing where it was coming from or why she was having it.

She had a very rough night last night, probably from the car ride to and from the vet and from the examination. She awoke at 2 am for her scheduled dose, but woke me again less than 2 hrs later crying pretty hard. All I could think to do was massage her spasming shoulders, so that's what I did for the next 2-1/2 hours until the alarm clock went off. She seems more comfortable resting on the recliner rather than in her own bed, so I'll let her sleep there tonight if she wants. She'll probably want to be upstairs with the rest of the family though.

We are supposed to keep Stefanie and Precious away from Ellie until she's feeling better, to avoid any incidents of somebody hurting somebody else. Stefanie grabbed Ellie's back leg before I could get there. What a good girl! She didn't even growl. She just sort of moaned. I guess she could see that I was coming to her rescue.

Unfortunately, I know what kind of pain Ellie is in. I doubt I've had it that severely for quite some time, probably not since I first injured my back in 1990. It makes me feel all the more empathetic to my sweet Ellie Bean! We're all hoping she will be back to her old self very soon!