u/princess-1971

About four years ago, I noticed my left ankle felt strange. It felt like I had a string tied around it too tightly. When I examined it, I saw that it was significantly swollen. Worried that it might be something serious. I went to see my primary care doctor. After some x-rays showed nothing abnormal she referred me to an orthopedic. The orthopedic took his own x-rays. It also saw nothing out of the ordinary. I went home and eventually the swelling reduced. My ankle went back to relatively normal for a few months and then the pain and swelling returned. I went through this cycle of pain and swelling for another three years before attempting to seek help from someone else. I went to see a different orthopedic and he ordered an MRI. By this time, the pain, swelling and added neuropathy in my ankle had become near constant. My ability to walk was severely compromised and I couldn’t tolerate the feeling of anything touching my ankles. I can’t wear shoes that touch my ankles. I was hopeful that the new orthopedic and MRI would find something that could be fixed. Unfortunately, once again the test showed nothing significant. There was a mild irregularity in the medial ligaments that the orthopedic said was likely due to an ankle injury. I don’t recall injuring my ankle and anyway, this situation with my ankle had been going on for three years by now. I would think that an ankle injury would have resolved after three years. Now going on my fourth year my right ankle is starting to feel some mild similar symptoms. My left ankle has deteriorated to where even with physical therapy I walk with a cane and I experience periods of moderate ankle weakness. If an MRI and two separate orthopedics can’t figure out what’s going on what else can I do? Maybe I should add, I recently discovered that I have adult scoliosis with major curvature of my lower spine. I don’t know if that could be useful information? I decided to throw this information out on Reddit to see if anyone else has experienced anything similar and if so, were they able to do anything about it?

About a month ago I posted here asking for advice regarding my 16 year old girl. She had suddenly started urinating all over the house. She has many health problems including diabetes, and an adrenal gland tumor. After my post she was examined by our vet and the tumor was spreading into her bladder. Since then she has deteriorated. She can no longer hold her urine and urinates almost constantly. She pees in her bed and on any spot that she lies on. This means that she is always resting in pools of urine. We covered everything in training pads which we change out as often as possible. The trouble is it’s impossible to keep her bed dry. As soon as we lay down clean pads she urinates, she can’t help it, she’s lost all control of her bladder. As a result the fur on the side she rests is falling out and she is developing sores from the urine. We are doing the best we can to keep her clean but the urine is constant.

In addition her appetite is low. She barely eats. We have given her mirataz , an appetite stimulant, but she is still not eating very much.
Despite all of this she keeps chugging along. She still eats here and there. She still gets up and wobbles back and forth from her two favorite places to sleep. She hasn’t permanently taken to her bed. She hasn’t totally stopped eating.

How long should I keep this up? Am I being fair to her? She is alive but not really living. We are just trying to get her through each day. We are forcing medicine on her that she dislikes. She drools it out and that’s causing fur loss around her mouth. We have to do this every 6 hours every day. She is sleeping and resting in her urine almost constantly. She walks with a lot of difficulty barely eats and I’m sure those sores she’s developed are painful.

I am so conflicted and my conscience is divided. I look at her and think this is no way to live. Then I also see that she retains some ability to walk and she is still alert. How do I know if it’s time to let go?