hi there chappie, this has turned into a rather long post! I'm glad that your budgie seems to have made progress! I completely understand how you feel about stressing your bird, unless they are tame, they can easily die of fright :(
My budgie ended up having to stay overnight at the vets. I was devastated, i was so incredibly worried that she would die of stress. She is very tame thought and made it through the tests and overnight stay, but she is only tame with me and bites anyone else who tried to handle her, which makes things sressful for everyone involved. It breaks my heart to see her ill, she is such a loving bird (she thinks i'm her mate it think!) and tries to attack my boyfriend, which doens't go down too well!
She had xrays and two lots of blood taken at the vets.. she has an enlarged liver and patchy areas in her lungs. So far she has had about ten days worth iof antibotic injections and i'm giving her pobiotics in her water to help her cope.
This morning she started twitching her legs.. almost like she is standing on a really hot perch, or trying to scratch her head but can't reach, it's very weird and i called th vet straight away. (I have seen her scratch her head, so i know she can do it, this twitch seems to be involuntary, besides that she seems quite active.) The vet said that was very strange and that perhaps the enlargment of the liver was putting pressure on the nerves to her legs and causing pins and needles? etc..
At this rate i'll have to give up uni to look after her!!
To be honest i don't really know what to do, i'll just have to see how her liver tests come out!
Hope things keep improving for you, i know how hard it is to make these decisions and to be looking after such little birds- Take care, -Abi and Monkey