Sunday, July 20, 2008

Drama of the week

And now, for this week's instalment of drama...Perfect: it's Sunday night - historically the time of the disease-of-the-week TV movie.

(I'm honestly fighting with myself about whether to be worried about how much has been going wrong over the last 6 months-1 year. It's so completely illogical, but today, in the midst of this latest episode, I couldn't help but get anxious about all of this...what's next? Is there someone I should consult about all of this? Am I doing something wrong, for goodness sake?)

I generally let Diamond, the cat, out onto the deck in short supervised stints of about 5 minutes. She longs to be outside, but the issue is that if I let her out, she jumps over the deck onto the roof of the apartments below and from there, there is a threat of jumping all the way down to the ground - not good. Usually I can keep her from jumping over, but last night she made a run for it and jumped over. I spent five hours trying to get her to come back over - I was slightly incapacitated because of my crutch situation.

At one point she tried to jump back over to come in, but it's high - about 5 feet - and she couldn't get over. I watched her hang on the side and then fall back - I couldn't get at her. I felt bad. I didn't think much of it, but later realized that she may have hurt herself at that point. At midnight, when she really desperately wanted to come back in, she began yowling and growling in an Exorcist-like fashion, pacing, and intermittently putting her paws up as if to try jumping - but the yowling would increase when she'd do that. Finally she tried, and I was able to grab her little paws and pull her over - ouch, but there was no way she'd get over un-assisted. She was screaming. She came into the apartment crying in pain, and then tried to hide, and yowled Exorcist-like, and lay there panting. Finally I figured out that she was most sensitive around her little chest and shoulders - but they didn't seem to be broken or dislocated. At one point, she went from panting to lying on her side, totally still and barely breathing, and I thought she was dying and called an emergency vet (at which point she got up and went to her food bowl, all normal-like, and I called off the emergency!).

Long story short, Diamond spent a very uncomfortable night. She wanted to come up on my bed, but every time she'd put her little front legs up on the bed, she'd groan in pain - she couldn't jump up. It was HEARTBREAKING. And because I'm incapacitated, I couldn't go and pick her up.

First thing this morning, we took Diamond to the vet. He kept her there for the day so he could x-ray her and then let the sedation wear off. The good news is that nothing is broken. So it is some kind of soft tissue injury - ligament or tendon or muscle. She was given a pain shot and I have anti-inflammatory painkillers for her for the next few days. Poor thing threw up in the car on the way home, and again since she's been here. She's totally dopey after the sedation. She won't leave me. We napped - her lying on my chest - for two hours this afternoon. All she wants to do is to sleep it off in my lap. It's kind of heartbreaking, though I'm so happy to hear that nothing is desperately wrong.

8 comments:

What Now? said...

One of my cats once had some sort of soft tissue injury -- we were never sure how she got it -- and it was heartbreaking to see her in pain like that. But the good news was that once she was treated by the vet (I think a cortisone shot and then follow-up treatments), she was right as rain in a day or so and then lived for many more happy years.

It does make a sad sort of logic that when something goes wrong, other things go wrong in reaction. So if you hadn't been on crutches, you might have been able to keep her on the balcony in the first place. There's probably a reason people say that bad things come in threes, because once something is off, other things go out of kilter easily.

All of which is to say that I don't think you're doing something wrong, but rather that you've had a string of bad luck that then has ongoing ramifications. It's really sucky, I know.

Brigindo said...

I agree with what now? this seems directly related to you being on crutches and would not have happened otherwise. And the accumulation of bad things often happens that way. However other dramas seem to be unrelated and that is just an unfortunate stream of bad luck. The realist in me says a run of bad luck can happen to anyone but the taoist in me would say that you are off your path and need to find a way back on to it.

I'm really glad Diamond is ok. The Brute fell off our roof last year and broke his pelvis - it was incredibly painful and took months for him to recover.

squadratomagico said...

Poor Diamond! Poor you! I hope you both can comfort one another!

Dr. K said...

What an awful experience for you both! But I am so glad to hear that nothing was broken and it does sound like you were able to comfort each other with your two hour nap. I am thinking "get 100% well soon" thoughts for you both.

medieval woman said...

I'm so glad she's okay! I would have been so upset as well - poor you on crutches trying to get to her - I'm happy that you two napped together - maybe this will be the end of her wanting to wander off, huh?

Hilaire said...

Thanks for all the commiseration, all you cat people!

WN - I was glad to hear that your kitty came back to herself quickly after a similar injury - Diamond's injury does seem to be recovering quickly.

Brigindo - A broken pelvis!! What a nightmare!

MW - I know, right?! NO more wandering!! It's been enough stress!

Earnest English said...

{{{{{{{Hilaire and Diamond}}}}}}}}

It HAS been a trying year for you. I hope it gets better. At least you and Diamond can look forward to lots of naps together -- sometimes I think there is nothing better in the world than lying around with my cat -- he will get me no matter what.

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