hrmm

Poor Hobbsie has started wheezing again in earnest, so I called Dr. Henkle to schedule an appointment for tonight. I've also been worried about his kidneys since he's been drinking and peeing a whole lot more. With the cortisone treatments he gets, there's potential for diabetes.

I'm trying very hard to not get tizzified over this.

He's an old kitty, even though he looks and acts like a frisky teenager, and I know I don't have that much more time with him. Which is not okay. I have no idea how I'm going to get along without him.

Anyhow. Have hoards of things to do today. Working on contract work stuff, got some new ideas so I'm excited to display them. Then must do thorough cleaning. And not just surface clutter-removal.

And then Sunday. Greg! Is! Coming! Yay! Just worked out the menu for dinner and really need to spend rest of today and tomorrow cleaning and grocery shopping. His visit notwithstanding, I really want to get some decent deep cleaning in.

In other exciting news, my legs are less sore today. That is very exciting as I was getting tired of limping around wincing in pain. And my arms aren't sore at ALL. Party.

fuck fuck fuck

Just got back from the vet. It was a traumatic experience all around.

Generally, Hobbes is fine going to the vet. He meows a bit, but he doesn't freak out and throw up or pee all over the cat carrier. He sits in the box, we meow at each other. The vet sees us, gushes over how beautiful he is (because he IS) and what a good boy he is (because he IS) and he gets his cortisone shot, whatever. We pay, we leave.

Today they were running late. Again. This has happened a few times and they're a great clinic, so essentially I think they're worth the aggravation. And generally I think they run late because they really give excellent care to each pet. We get in to see Dr. Henkle and have the big scary talk about diabetes. We can't give him his cortisone shot because there are complications if he has diabetes, so we need to hold off. She checked him out, all systems seem fine, and she took him back to see if she can get him to pee and also do a blood test.

Dr. Henkle comes out and tells me they can't get him to pee because he's super wiggly and stubborn. We work out the various frustrating options and I agree to bring him back first thing Wednesday morning to try again. I pay for the exam and blood test. A technician brings out Hobbes in his cardboard carrier. I walk towards the door and realize he's freaking out in the box. Something he never, ever does.

So I freak out, and stop, and open the box to see what's going on. I guess their attempts at expressing his bladder expressed a bit late. He had peed all over the box and was obviously not happy about sitting in a pool of his own urine. Jessica, wonderful front desk staff, rushed to help, grabbed him, and took him back. I handed off the pee filled carrier to a tech. In spite of Hobbes's trauma of peeing on himself, the silver lining was that they were able to do a quick urine test.

Loads of sugar in the blood. Diabetes = highly likely. Dr. Henkle says that sometimes stress can cause high sugar levels in urine, but he's lost a pound, has clinical symptoms and it just doesn't look good.

The blood test results will confirm this for us tomorrow. We talked some more about what to do. It may end up that I have to give him insulin shots twice a day. Do home blood tests, etc. The complication to all of this is his asthma, because the cortisone shots will have to stop and we'll have to administer daily oral or inhaled medication. At least it is a treatable disease and he won't experience a great deal of pain or discomfort on a regular basis.

My poor baby cat.