| Sunday, April 06, 2008 |
| Priceless |
This hasn't been a great weekend. I moderated a health care panel discussion at Enoch Pratt Library on Saturday morning for the League of Women Voters. That was just stressful since I had set it all up months ago and had to moderate, which meant getting there early and sitting on the panel directing questions. I was nervous that not a lot of people would attend, and I had asked Dr. Peter Beilenson as a personal favor to be on the panel, but luckily attendance was good and so was the discussion afterwards.
Afterwards, I ran to work to meet with my VP to discuss interim management plans and communications from Friday's bloodshed. I stuck around for another couple of hours to prepare for a big meeting tomorrow and get ready for the coming week.
Meanwhile, back at the hacienda, things weren't going too well with Pumpkin. Four days later, and despite antibiotics and special food, he was still peeing lakes of bloody urine (all over the laundry room floor - yay), and is clearly in pain. The good news was that he isn't blocked, and he seems to be drinking and eating fine, so I kept a careful eye on him, but today he was really in a lot of pain, making low, horrible, heart wrenching cat moans. Just sitting in front of the water dish with his eyes half closed, and straining a lot without producing anything.
I decided 5 days of both of us suffering were enough and took him back to the ER. They are going to anesthetize him, insert a catheter and give him IV fluids and antibiotics to flush all the crystals out of his urine. His ultrasound showed a lot more crystal sediment in his bladder, which means this could go on for days before he cleared naturally, and I don't think either one of us are up for that. For men out there who have passed a kidney stone, or any woman who has had a urinary tract infection, you know what I mean. His kidney function is good, so if they flush him out, and he stays on his new diet - he should be fine (she typed optimistically).
What isn't fine is my checkbook.
$285 for the plumber to dismantle the toilet and clear out the clog the cats made.
$335 for the first trip to the ER
$1,500 for surgery, drugs and hospitalization
A healthy pet - priceless.
UPDATE: Pumpkin is coming out of anesthesia and resting "comfortably". As comfortably as you can with a catheter up your willy. They flushed all the blood out of his bladder, and if things go well, I should be able to bring him home tomorrow night or Tuesday. That gave me time to thoroughly scrub the laundry room and clean things up to include new litter boxes I bought today, as well as laundering the cat beds and cleaning all the bowls. I bought a new, electronic watering bowl/ bubbler, so they have fresh filtered water all day as well.
I'm lucky to have a a very clean, comfortable space for him where he can pee on the floor if he has to, it won't hurt a thing, and is easy to clean. That said, I want to make sure he's healthy before I let him back upstairs where there are Berber, oriental, kilim and leather rugs to ruin. |
posted by Broadsheet @ 5:30 PM   |
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| 2 Editorial Opinions: |
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You KNOW I feel your pain - Elliott is looking better every day, but the ongoing bills are going to kill me! I sure hope this makes Pumpkin feel better - let me know if you need anything.
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I'm glad you went ahead with the surgery to speed up the healing! My cat Max had emergency bladder surgery for the same thing when he was about 5. Luckily with the prescription food we never had a recurrence. Hoping for the same with Pumpkin!
He may leak for a while after they take the catheter out as he'll have to regain muscle control. Good thing to keep him in the laundry. I had to lock Max in a teeny bathroom (my ONLY one at the time) and it wasn't fun for either of us.
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You KNOW I feel your pain - Elliott is looking better every day, but the ongoing bills are going to kill me! I sure hope this makes Pumpkin feel better - let me know if you need anything.