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Sep. 24th, 2005 03:07 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
spatchThey're probably right when they say the first night home is the hardest. For any kind of invalid.
We picked Martha up tonight at Angell. She's real weak. I don't know if it's the dope she's on or what. She walked a bit from the stairs tonight, down one step and around the corner, and that was where her back legs gave out. It broke my heart to watch her flop right down there and I know she wasn't happy to experience it, either. When I wasn't looking, however, she walked all the way to the chair and hopped up. But when I went to pick her up, she was limp again, one paw's claws stuck in the chair fabric (she's always had a problem retracting her clawses.) The arm around one paw's "wrist" is rudely shorn for her IV though the regular paw part is normal. As a result she looks like she's holding a paw on a stick. My neuroses towards medical treatment kick in when I glance at her arm (I get uncomfortable shivers when I see certain medical treatments. Some stitches are fine but others eek me out.)
Abbie's being as polite as he can. That's good.
Along with Martha came a healthy amount of medicine:
* Two forms of antibiotics, each to be taken twice daily, one for ten days, the other for five.
* One appetite stimulant, to be given twice daily for three days.
* Pepcid AC (she gets a box just like me!) to be given half a pill twice daily for five days.
* A liver treatment medicine to be given twice daily for five days.
* One thing I've probably forgotten but it's on the list.
Also included are five days' worth of wet Science Diet prescription A/D food to be given through a syringe. We're to feed her one can a day in four feedings. The smell takes some getting used to but honestly, it's gonna be a smell I'll remember for quite some time. I mix the food with a little warm water (also suggested is chicken stock or anything else she'll find palatable) and load the syringe (we were thoughtfully given two syringes; one in Heroin Junkie and the other Sheep Suppository size) and bring dinner to the cat. Our first dinner together was a quiet affair and rather limp, but I consider it a victory. Martha lapped the stuff up just fine for most of it, but when she started letting it just dribble back out of her mouth, I figured she was done. I told her it's going to give her that strength back. She may believe me.
The liquid food left her paws and nose cold, even after I wiped it up, and for a moment I was worried she'd been sent into some kind of kitty shock with this feeding. Her energy seems to be fluctuating and she goes from strong to weak quite quickly, but I keep telling myself this is the first night. We just have to take things moment by moment, and see how she's doing in the morning. Currently she's resting on my bed so I can watch her overnight. I'm supposed to go to work tomorrow but I'm so goddamn exhausted I may have to just call in. Besides, I gotta feed the kitty.
Good night.
We picked Martha up tonight at Angell. She's real weak. I don't know if it's the dope she's on or what. She walked a bit from the stairs tonight, down one step and around the corner, and that was where her back legs gave out. It broke my heart to watch her flop right down there and I know she wasn't happy to experience it, either. When I wasn't looking, however, she walked all the way to the chair and hopped up. But when I went to pick her up, she was limp again, one paw's claws stuck in the chair fabric (she's always had a problem retracting her clawses.) The arm around one paw's "wrist" is rudely shorn for her IV though the regular paw part is normal. As a result she looks like she's holding a paw on a stick. My neuroses towards medical treatment kick in when I glance at her arm (I get uncomfortable shivers when I see certain medical treatments. Some stitches are fine but others eek me out.)
Abbie's being as polite as he can. That's good.
Along with Martha came a healthy amount of medicine:
* Two forms of antibiotics, each to be taken twice daily, one for ten days, the other for five.
* One appetite stimulant, to be given twice daily for three days.
* Pepcid AC (she gets a box just like me!) to be given half a pill twice daily for five days.
* A liver treatment medicine to be given twice daily for five days.
* One thing I've probably forgotten but it's on the list.
Also included are five days' worth of wet Science Diet prescription A/D food to be given through a syringe. We're to feed her one can a day in four feedings. The smell takes some getting used to but honestly, it's gonna be a smell I'll remember for quite some time. I mix the food with a little warm water (also suggested is chicken stock or anything else she'll find palatable) and load the syringe (we were thoughtfully given two syringes; one in Heroin Junkie and the other Sheep Suppository size) and bring dinner to the cat. Our first dinner together was a quiet affair and rather limp, but I consider it a victory. Martha lapped the stuff up just fine for most of it, but when she started letting it just dribble back out of her mouth, I figured she was done. I told her it's going to give her that strength back. She may believe me.
The liquid food left her paws and nose cold, even after I wiped it up, and for a moment I was worried she'd been sent into some kind of kitty shock with this feeding. Her energy seems to be fluctuating and she goes from strong to weak quite quickly, but I keep telling myself this is the first night. We just have to take things moment by moment, and see how she's doing in the morning. Currently she's resting on my bed so I can watch her overnight. I'm supposed to go to work tomorrow but I'm so goddamn exhausted I may have to just call in. Besides, I gotta feed the kitty.
Good night.
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Date: 2005-09-24 07:38 am (UTC)I would call in to work (and have called in for sick cats any number of times). You've already been up half the night anyway and so you can legitimately say you feel like crap. (If they want details you can make vague references to "stomach... wet and gooey and the *smell*..." and it will be a completely honest statement but I garan-dam-tee you they won't ask for more detail. *grin*)
I just asked Bear if he had a message for a poor sick little pirate, and he said "mrrrr?" which I think means "is there any food?" (since pretty much anything he says usually means that) and I think that translates to "tell that poor little pirate to eat up!"
Give Martha a smooch on the head for me, if she likes head-smooching. And don't worry if she's really really tired for a few days. Nobody sleeps worth a damn in the hospital.
On behalf of kitties everywhere, thank you for taking such good care of her. You get bonus points in heaven.