The Red Paw of Courage

This is Romeo yesterday evening. They sent him home with a 'Red Paw of Courage'. :-) He is hiding in the upper storey of his cat condo, trying to sleep, wishing Mom would go the fuck away.

Mom did -- rilly. Dr Vet said to.

Today I could not stay home and watch him, so I stayed with him typing for as long as I could, then I phoned Meg to stop by on her way out of town (she is going to Vegas) and take Rome to Dr Vet's for water, another shot of antibiotics (he looked at the Baytril in a Pill Pocket and told me to go screw myself, and he is too sick for me to get into trying to force the pill down his throat), more pain meds, and whatever else.

Right after Meg left, Dr Vet phoned & said that he wanted another kidney function test anyway, so Romeo got that. BUN was still around 80-something, and CREA was 3.9 (he phoned a few hours later, 'cos he was leaving and knew I would want to know). Dr Vet said that was ok for now, all things considered, and he has older pets with similar values who are staying stable with fluid therapy. I offered that if it gets worse, I would want to put Romeo down before making him live with feeling like shit all the time. High Creatinine (I am told) is not *painful*, one just feels shitty and run-down all the time, like being permanently sick. That's a suck-ass QoL if you ask me. I may reconsider if I can get him to purr regularly, or if he *seems* happy and ok with feeling shitty...we'll see when it happens. *IF* it happens.

I have a break right now; I also was told to make Rome eat tonight. Something. Anything. :-) Dr Vet said if Romeo wants pizza and beer, he gets pizza and beer. Seriously, though; I will start with a/d, and if that does not work, I will syringe-feed baby food (again, bless Wildrun for educating me about that!!).

I still have to finish typing one paper, then I am (mostly) done. I still have to go to work all day tomorrow (Eviljob), so I have already made plans to drop Romeo off at Dr Vet's and somehow miraculously pick him up before he closes at four. Argh.

Today I started shaking -- my right hand and arm -- and I thought, 'oh, wonderful; I am sure that's MS or Parkinson's'...then I realised that the last actual sleep I had was Monday night, and the last time I actually ate was Wednesday.

That might have something to do with it. Maybe tonight I'll have some a/d with Rome.

Sigh.

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