difficult day

Sun. Feb 14th - We gave Sam 1000 mL of fluids one Prilosec, two Prednisone, 3 Baytril, & 16 Tramadol. Saturday night was a long night. With the news we received on Saturday and Sam's pain when he got up & tried to walk we thought we'd reached the end of our road. Saturday afternoon we called Dr. Stoll and scheduled a Sunday noon apt for what would've been our last apt. with her. We called the pet cremation service & even drove to where the pet cremation site is located so we'd know where to go today. I just couldn't blog about it yesterday. We cried before we picked him up, when we got him home and most of the night. He cried every time we got him up but when we was laying down he seemed comfortable. When we got up this morning we didn't know if we could go through with the decision we'd made Saturday. As the morning ticked by we talked and talked and cried and cried. Around 10am while staring into his sweet brown eyes we decided to wait. We desperately don't want him to suffer or have to leave us in the rush of an emergency ECVR appointment but we just couldn't do it today. He ate well and his fever from Sat. had improved this morning so we are hopeful we can control that challenge.
We called Dr. Stoll and explained our decision. She is the most compassionate and patient doctor we've encountered, for pets or people. She said she totally understood and was glad we weren't giving up on him yet. We asked if she'd tell us if it were time & we weren't seeing it and she said she absolutely would but that she believes we have some time left with him. We called the pet cremation man & canceled out apt. Although the news of his cancer spreading yesterday is still weighing heavy on us the decision to say goodbye today was lifted.
Each time we took Sam outside we had to help him stand and walk. Several times he cried out in pain. We couldn't tell if it was his leg, hip or back that was hurt from the fall Saturday morning. Tonight his temp has started to climb again but we've checked with Dr. Stoll. There are so many factors we are doing our best to evaluate all of them. We are doing all we can to keep him comfortable and with us for as long as possible but do not want to cause him to be in pain or discomfort. The last time we took him out he lost all control of his back legs & couldn't get up the steps. We both lifted him and carried him all the way to the bedroom. We think he may have possible neurological damage because he isn't correcting his back paws when they are turned under.