Not too long ago my oldest brother fell and shattered his elbow. After surgery and much morphine and rehab, he is still not back to work yet. My other brother, found out on Thanksgiving day that he had a heart attack sometime in the previous months. I rolled my car this week. My brothers and I decided someone really needs to let my sister know her time is coming.
Yesterday before going back to work - amidst dealing with car crash issues and all, I took my full figured kitty Norah, to the vet. She hadn't been feeling well and her back legs were getting weak again. The day before I took her she wasn't eating at all, and I was having to bring water to her to get her to drink. With my accident I had a lot going on, not sure if I was as worried as I should have been but .. spilled milk.
The visit was pretty alarming. She was severely dehydrated and had lost 3 lbs. Even for a full figured gal, that's a lot. She had blood in her urine and her temperature was lower than normal. The doctor was very concerned and suggested doing blood work and keeping her overnight to keep her on IV fluids to get her on the road to re-hydration.
My throat went dry and I wanted to cry .. "I don't know if I can afford this."
With my car and Christmas and all that .. it's not a good time. But what do you do? Say - put my cat down because I can't afford to treat her? I have a real problem with that - for me. I can't judge anyone else. I want to keep a balance between treating her and being unrealistic and making her more uncomfortable. I'm not in the DO EVERYTHING YOU CAN TO KEEP HER ALIVE camp. While a human knows why they are undergoing treatments that make them sick and uncomfortable, what does an animal know? They just know that everything feels bad and sucks. It's definitely quality of life vs. quantity for a pet as far as I am concerned. So I want to do what we can to treat Norah in a fashion that is reasonable - until such time as the doctor says no, the scale is tipping the other way now.
For Norah, her blood work is bad, she still isn't doing well today. But she does look a bit better than yesterday and even showed a little interest in food - and the doc doesn't think it's time to give up. So, even though I have to scramble to figure out how to pay for it - we aren't pulling the plug.
After visiting with Norah and speaking with the doctor this evening, I was teary and sad and put my forehead down on the exam table when I remembered I still had to go to Wal-Mart to pick up injection syringes for Jakie. Really? .. what else?
To be continued .. I hope.
So sorry to hear. I hope your kitty starts to feel better, and even more importantly, I hope your sister stays healthy and safe. To the rest of you, heal well.
ReplyDeleteThanks, me too!!
ReplyDeleteOh BetteJo, Ive been there and bought the Tshirt...you sound like you are being very reasonable and responsible to me....so be good to yourself, and what to do and when to do it will be clear soon. After all, you havent exactly had a good week, eh? So extra points for still being functioning at all!!!!
ReplyDeleteHUGS!!!
Well - she is staying the weekend at the clinic. It's weird that things just all failed at once, but we will see what a couple more days of IV fluids will do, and there is one test result still out. No decisions to be made yet. . . . .
DeleteOh my BetteJo, what else can this month carry for you. Mom used to say everything happens for a reason, "I hatted hearing that", not that I needed to share it with you but come on you have had your share this month. Test of strength is it? hum, I don't know but I wish next week is better for you. The fact that the kitty is eating is a good thing and the vet seems to think everything is going her way. Keep us posted and do something for you special this weekend would you? Oh and don't forget to mention to your sister about it might be her turn so she can be on guard. Tomorrow :-)
ReplyDeleteWell, the car was bad but on the other hand - I was very, very lucky. So Norah - yeah, this is no fun. She's breaking my heart.
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