Elmo is getting old...

Ok, the last two weeks have not been pleasant. Getting through the end of the school year is always kind of crazy but our dear old dog has added quite a bit to the craziness...
Our sweet little Elmo is getting old.
So I take her in to get some paid meds for arthritis. They prescribe Rimadyl then take blood to check her liver. Don't give her the Rimadyl yet. Liver counts are too high, so they put her on antbiotics for 2 weeks. In the mean time, Elmo eats the entire bottle of pain meds! Yes, my dog over dosed on Rimadyl. She's at the vet for two days given the doggy version of epicak (stuff that makes you vomit) charcoal and IV fluids. Comes home, her liver counts are going down YIPPEE. About a week later, the dumb dog runs after a squirrel and blows out her ACL! Back to the vet we go. She needs a $1600 surgery and her liver counts are up to 900. Let me put this in perspective for you...her original count was 200, after a week of antibiotics it went down to 145, normal is somewhere around 107, and now it is at 900. Where's the emoticon with his eyes bugging out of his head?
What do we do now? It was the worst few days ever! I felt bad she was hobbling around on three legs. They can't operate until her counts go down. Will they go down? What if they don't go down? Are we going to have to put her to sleep? I can't do that! Do we have $1600 to pay for her surgery? Do we want to put her through that? Do we want to go through that? UGH!
After talking with a few neighbors they all said our vet's prices were very high. We even considered taking her to a vet in Door County that our neighbor's mom uses.
Well, after some calling around, my wonderful husband brought Elmo to a vet in Fox Lake who said he does the surgery for $800 and some change. I really need that emoticon with his eyes bugging out! She's on more antibiotics and pain meds and two herbal supplements. And as soon as her liver counts go down, she's having sugery!