update for the week!

last week was a whirlwind. I worked a couple of doubles, running home to take care of carver between shifts. carver will not go out for walks with our dog walker friend since the surgery. I am not sure exactly why, but he will only go out with either e or me. I don't mind, really, I actually like the excuse to spend a little time with him midday, but am worried about the coming months, when work gets busy again. I have to remind myself that this is a happy thing to worry about-since we could have lost carver months ago, had we listened to the first vet! carver has been doing o.k. this week. still taking lots of breaks on his walks, lots of laying down, and it has been tough to get him home if we go on any fun walks, especially to the pond. the walk there is great, the walk home is a huge test in patience, which I fail every time. it has been a big adjustment to make in my perception of how he should be doing . I just am full of resistance about his needing to rest, and have been full of worry that he is in further pain. in the midst of all the chaos, I fell asleep on the couch wednesday evening, and forgot to give carver his tramadol before crawling into bed. the next morning, carver was full of spunk, walked farther that he had in weeks and rested only a couple of times. when I mentioned this to e, she reminded me that a week back the same thing had happened-I gave his less tramadol and he perked up. so, armed with this good hunch, we decided to try & monitor him off the tramadol. e took us both to provincetown this weekend for my upcoming birthday. carver was with us every minute of the day. we all had a wonderful time, taking walks and being outside. carver had a very difficult time on the sand, so our beach visits were short but we did lay down for a while at race point, to see the breaching right whales who have gathered just off the shore. we took carver on some wonderful walks in the woods and walks in the town where he was admired by all. he has not taken tramadol since last wednesday, and I have to say he is doing really well. he was full of energy all weekend, and got a lot more exercise than he has in the past couple of weeks, and despite all of this he does not seem to be in any more pain. he still seems weak in his hips. he is still on derramaxx for the arthritis. I am hoping he keeps showing improvement off the pain killer. It has been such a delight and relief to see him excited to be out and about once again.

last week marked the three month anniversary of carver's surgery. three months of time we did not think we had. back in january I never thought we would be traveling with carver for my birthday-what a wonderful gift he is! how lucky we are to have him with us still.

lots of pictures to follow when I am not so sleepy.