Health Scares

Well, it's been quite the eventful 24hours. It all started with book club. We meet about every 6 weeks and it's really the only regular thing I do on a weekday outside of work. Normally after work, I head home, have dinner with the boys, put Dylan to bed and (lately) unpack\organize the house. Yesterday though, the boys met me at Chipotle for dinner so I could spend a couple of minutes with them before going to meet with the girls. Once I drove to the hostess's house, I dropped my purse at the door (beside everyone else's) and had a nice evening with the girls.

As we were all getting jackets on to leave around 10pm, I checked my phone (in my purse still next to the front door) and realized that Mike had called me about 8 times, left a couple of voice mails and sent some texts. Ruh-roh! Before seeing what he had said, I knew it couldn't be good. I tried to make out his words through his very upset voice mails but all I could really distinguish was that Oliver wasn't doing well. After a call to him, it was clear that Oliver needed medical attention immediately. The tricky thing is we didn't know who to turn to. As we just moved, we're kind of in between vets. Our previous one transferred the kitty's files to the new one last week but our first meeting with the new vet wasn't scheduled until next week. After calling both numbers, it was determined we would get to the emergency clinic associated with our new vet and closer to home. Mike called me with the address. While Mike was getting Dylan awakened and in the car and packing up sickly Oliver, I was driving furiously to meet them at the clinic.

I arrived a few minutes before the car full of boys, got the needed forms filled out and anxiously awaited at the door to help get everyone in. They took Oliver straight back for vitals and I tried to keep a very tired Dylan happy looking at the fish tank. Once vitals were taken, we met the vet in the exam room. She gave us her assessment of vitals (irregular heart beat but nothing else out of the norm) and her recommendation for immediate tests (blood tests and urinalysis).....and the estimate. Yikes! It would was going to be an expensive night!

Mike and I agreed that he should get Dylan back home and I would stay and take care of Oliver, vet questions and care decisions. When I mentioned that maybe he should go home, Dylan was very happy with that thought. He said "go home, take blanket and yaya" (his night time must haves that had come with him) "take Oliver." When I told him that Oliver had to stay with me so the doctor could help him, the bottom lip stuck out and tears started rolling down his cheeks. Heartbreaking. Dylan loves his kitties and he did not like that Oliver was not going to be at home where he belongs.

I went back to the waiting room, finished the last 15 pages of the book I had just discussed with the girls, caught up with facebook for the day, checked email and played some games on the iPhone while I waited. (What did I do before the iPhone??) After about 30 minutes, the vet came back out and said that blood tests looked good except for the sugar levels - Oliver's were (her words) "alarmingly low." So, I okay-ed an immediate glucose IV and waited for the next level of cost estimate (for admittance for the night) to be brought to me. Ugh and ugh!

After I had a chance to talk to Oliver for a bit and say my goodnights to him, I left for home a little after midnight. (2nd heartbreaking moment of the night....seeing Oliver's confused\sad face as I walked away from him to leave.) Once home, Mike surprised me with our new kitchen table and chairs that had been delivered\set up that day and I tried to figure out how I would get to sleep after an adrenalin filled night. I think I finally drifted off to what could barely be considered sleep around 1:30am and got a few hours of superficial rest. I awoke early, got ready and called the vet for an update. They had the blood sugar back up and Oliver was screaming at them - a good sign for a cat that's normally extremely unhappy with the vet but had been disturbingly quiet when dropping him off the night before. The internist would be in around 8:30-9, review Oliver's charts and advise us what to do from there. So, I let them know I would come for a pre-work visit.

By the time I finished up with all that, the boys were up and getting ready. They decided to come with me to see Oliver. With the pouring rain and traffic, we got there around 8:30. I was a little confused on how it happened, but a quick visit turned into an almost 2 hour event. We stayed in an exam room with Oliver while the internist tended to another emergency, came in to talk with us, brought us more charges (ugh!) and asked what we would do from there. I wanted to consult our primary vet....but which one? I called the new clinic, gave them the run down and then waited for them to call back. In the meantime, we had to skidaddle because I had another appointment at the people hospital (as opposed to the animal hospital) for baby #2. I'll describe that drama in post to come "Health Scare Part II." Anywho, we left, I got a call from the new clinic saying they wanted us to call the old clinic. So I called the old clinic and left a message. The message was returned as I was laying down, with my big belly exposed and covered in goop, and in between seeing the ultrasound tech and the doctor. I had a brief conversation with my old vet which was put on hold while I finished the rest of my ultrasound appointment. When done with that and while driving into work (finally), we finished our conversation and it was decided that Oliver should come home today.

Although we don't know the underlying reason of his severe crash, he is currently stable. We'll be working with the vets (old, new and emergency clinic test results we are still awaiting) to come up with a future plan of action. In the meantime, Mike and Dylan picked up Oliver a little while ago and are taking my sweet kitty (with 2 shaved legs) home to where he'll be getting lots of good snuggles tonight. He gave us quite the scare!