The Prisoner

Simone had her visit with Dr. Baltzer at OSU yesterday. She determined that Simone most likely does have a bulging disc and not a soft tissue injury as initially thought. We were of course encouraged to have a CT scan to confirm this, but chose to decline. Dr. Baltzer said Simone has a 50/50 chance of recovering from this condition and regaining use of her hind leg. She said the best thing we can do is to confine her, only take her out when she needs to potty (10 minutes of assisted walking or less a couple of times a day), and give her a strong anti-inflammatory medication the next two weeks to hopefully help the discs recede. We have moved downstairs as a family for the next 8 weeks as stairs aren't allowed (our days of squalor have returned). We have also been encouraged to look into a doggie wheelchair to help support her hind leg on longer walks even after she recovers. Our neighbor Tammy loaned us her portable pen to use to enclose the bed that now sits on the living room floor to help keep Simone from scooting all around the house on her belly during the day while we are gone. Although she looks happy in the photo, she's a unhappy at the thought of being kept penned up, and whined sadly at us earlier this evening. We plan on sleeping with the fence around the bed to hopefully not just associate the pen with us leaving for work, so we're all caged up together.