Luke had his visit this morning. I love my new vet. We've only been going to him for 4 months but he's so much better than my previous one. He spent 45 minutes with him and talking to me. It turns out that Luke's really not in any pain. He had to work pretty hard to elicit a pain response - he's panting and whining because he's anxious because he knows something isn't working right back there. Occasionally there's pain, but that's where the tramadol comes in. Once I can get him washed out of his NSAID, he's starting on a course of high dose steroids for a week possibly followed by some low dose steroids. Maybe it will improve some of the weakness caused by the neurological stuff going on. We'll reevalute in a couple of weeks.