You know, we kind of have a saying here on the message board, "put the oxygen mask on yourself first". It comes from the pre-flight instructions you hear from the flight attendant when you are taking off. In case of an emergency, if the oxygen masks drop, put yours on first, then put them on your children. It's the same taking care of a handicapped pet, and especially for someone like you with a pet more than half your weight. I know your instinct is to give priority to the pet, but you just can't...or you can, but only to a certain point. You can't let anything happen to yourself because then who is going to take care of your dog. When a pet's life is basically depending on us, we can't let anything happen to us or this whole house of cards will tumble down. My big down dog was a senior dog and he passed away 2 years ago, and I am still dealing with the back problems. Like you I had back problems before, but I have additional back problems now, and I was about as careful as it is possible to be. I'm hoping your dog will start to show signs of improvement soon. That is extremely cool if she was trying to use her leg. And the whole fact that she has bladder control is huge. I have to think that even though she is down, she is not one of the really bad cases. And if your dog is assisting with the expressing, that sounds very good.
But you may still have a number of weeks of lifting ahead of you, so you'd better take it as easy as possible. One thing that really really helped me on the lifting...let me try to describe this. Your dog is lying on her bed. She has a harness aroung her waist or hips. Assume you are right handed. You kneel down on one knee (like Prince Charming). If you are right handed you are kneeling on your left knee and your right elbow is braced on your right thigh. You grab the handles of your dog's harness and do a "curl" like you a weightlifter lifting a weight. This allows you to help your dog to her feet while putting almost no strain on your back. Be careful, you could rip something in your elbow if you lift too much that way. If you think you are going to hurt your elbow, then I don't recommend it.
![kneel.PNG](./download/file.php?id=3656&sid=c744e80890c296685d92a2f5e776f3f3)
Something that helped me, was to consider how much I was actually lifting. Heaven knows the dog is heavy, but I had to remind myself I was not lifting the whole dog. A dog carries about 60% of their weight on the front feet and 40% on the back, so if you are boosting the dog's hindquarters, it would be about 26 lbs. 26 lbs sounds a whole lot better than thinking, "I am lifting a 65-lb dog all day". The trouble is, it is a little more complicated than that. It would be 26 lbs if it was a "dead lift" straight up with no other motion, but I found that I was also having to compensate for other movements from my dog. I'd be lifting and he'd lurch to the side or lose his balance and suddenly I was supporting his weight plus the added weight of him pulling in a certain direction and me trying to steady him. It is not so much the controlled lift that is hard but the compensating for all the "chaotic" movements that can occur trying to get him off his bed, or up from a different position, or up in cramped quarters because he fell down in a awkward location...under a rose bush, between the table and the wall, etc. You probably know what I'm talking about. Sometimes I think you just have to stand back and look at the situation and think, "Now what's the best way to do this without straining anything?" That's what you have to do. Stop. Stand back. Look at it. Think. I know one thing, I should have started taking Alleve sooner! You just have to take care of your
self. She's depending on you!
P.S. They said she didn't do well in the underwater treadmill? I have a chihuahua who is paralyzed, and the first half dozen times she went on the underwater treadmill, the PT had to be inside the tank in the water with her, holding her ankles and making her hind legs do stepping motions. Finally after a number of sessions, something "kicked in" and she began taking steps herself. That was a great day! (She was also scared of the water at first and had to get used to it.) Yes, PT is expensive, I am glad you have it available. Even once a week is good, but she can improve with PT at home, or even swimming in the lake this summer. If your back is up to doing some bending over, you could try having her in her wheelchair and putting her hind feet down (not in stirrups) and helping her place her hind correctly in a stepping motion as she walks. You might ask the therapist about that.