Monday, January 28, 2008, 21:41
Reprieve
I cannot hardly believe it. The thermometer says it is 39 degrees this afternoon. Above zero. The snow is soft and slushy. The driveway is sloppy. The roads are sloppy too.
The warmth won't last long, though. Tonight the weather forecast says there will be rain, freezing rain and snow. And then for the rest of the week, the temperature will again be below zero at night and only in the single digits during the day. Seems like we've had quite a lot of below zero temperatures this winter. Last fall, the long-range forecast for this area was above-normal temperatures and average precipitation.
Sure, we got quite a bit of snow in December, but now the snow seems to have stopped. And the average daily temperature last week as of Friday morning was almost five degrees *below* zero. For an average temperature. And that wasn't counting the windchills every day of 10 to 20 below zero.
Sunday afternoon, we could tell that the weather was starting to warm up. The afternoon temperature was 25 degrees, and it felt downright balmy. Practically shorts and tee-shirt weather. This morning it was 22 degrees, and that was how one person on a Twin Cities television station described the morning low: downright balmy.
The nice weather will end soon enough, but for today, I am enjoying the reprieve.
Duke update
I am still running subcutaneous fluid into Duke morning and evening. I think he continues to feel a tiny bit better. He seems to be moving around better and to feel somewhat stronger. This morning I didn't think his walk was quite as stumbling and shambling has it been yesterday. He still gets tired out quickly, though. After getting a drink or a few bites of cat food or using the litter box, he often has to lie down to rest three or four times between wherever he has been and the rocking chair where he wants to be. He is not spending as much time huddled up on the bathroom heat vent, either.
Sunday night when I talked to Duke, he managed to respond with one, little, tiny meow. His whole life, Duke has been a talker and has always answered me when I talked to him with chirps and meows. "Hi Duke." "Meow!" "Want some kitty food Duke?" "Chirp-meow!" "Want to get brushed?" "Reee-owwwww!"
That one, little, tiny meow Sunday evening is the most that Duke has said to me in two weeks.
LeAnn R. Ralph
Sunday, January 27, 2008, 06:02
No Pain -- No Gain
"Ahhhhhhghhhh! Ouch! Ow-ow-ow-ow!" I yelled.
"What's wrong?" Randy asked, rushing into the living room. "What happened? Did you stick yourself with the needle?"
The pain in my leg was worse than one needle. It was 16 needles.
"No," I said, reaching down with my left hand while still holding the IV bag, tubing and needle in my right hand. "No, I didn't stick myself."
I grabbed the scruff of Henry's neck and plucked him off my leg. Just as I was about to hang the IV bag up on the curtain rod so I could give Duke fluid Saturday morning, Henry came pounding into the living room, launched himself at me and then climbed my leg, digging all of his claws into my skin while doing so.
The past few days, because it has been so cold, I have been wearing sweat pants underneath my jeans. Henry (and Dora and Katerina, too) have been able to climb my legs without me feeling a thing. But Saturday morning, I had not yet gotten dressed and was only wearing sweat pants.
"All right. That's it," I said.
I could feel my heart rate going up in response to the adrenaline rush from the pain in my leg.
"All three of you going into the bathroom while I give Duke fluid," I said.
We rounded up Henry, Katerina and Dora and stashed them in the bathroom. Then I was ready to give Duke more Lactated Ringers.
Duke was sleeping in the chair with his sister, Winifred, and his good friend, Sebastian. He hardly even moved when I stuck the needle into his skin. Randy opened the tubing for me while I kept an eye on the needle. It took no time at all to run 200cc of fluid into Duke.
"That's an awful lot of cat to get filled up," Randy said as I pulled the needle out and put the cap back on. It was bad enough that Henry had stuck me in the leg 16 times. I figured, for the sake of safety, I ought to put the cap on the needle before walking around the house.
"Yeah, Duke's a big cat to get filled up again," I said.
I always knew that Duke was a very large cat -- 20 pounds of large cat. But since he has lost four pounds, I can really tell that he is a big cat. I've never been able to see his ribs or his spine before, and by the way his ribs are situated, it's easy to see that he has quite a large skeleton underneath the gray tabby fur.
Much the same
Duke did not eat anything at all on Friday and didn't seem like he felt even a tiny bit better after we started treating him with fluid on Thursday to get his kidneys flushed out. Saturday morning he seemed much the same as he had on Friday. Alert but not feeling very well.
I hung the IV bag and tubing back up on the light fixture in the hallway where it was well out of the reach of kitten claws. Then I let Henry, Katerina and Dora out of the bathroom.
My mistake, at that point, was not shutting the bathroom door when I was ready to get dressed. Since it has warmed up some outside (10 degrees Saturday morning! Yipee! Heat wave!) I decided I did not need to wear sweat pants underneath my jeans.
That was my second mistake.
As I was buttoning my jeans, Henry came pounding into the bathroom and threw himself at my leg.
"Agggghhhhhhh! Arrrrrrggh! Ouch! Ow-ow-ow!" I yelled.
I hastily reached down and plucked Henry from his secure perch on the inside of my thigh.
Do you have any idea how tender the skin is on the inside of the thigh? I didn't. Not really. Not until Henry dug all of his claws into my skin and then hung on fiercely.
Henry sat on the bathroom rug, lashing his tail and looking up at me with a glint in his eyes.
"Shoo," I said, nudging him with my foot.
Just at that moment, Henry spied his sister Katerina coming into the bathroom and pounced on her. I thought I was safe. If Henry was busy playing with Katerina, he would forget about climbing my legs.
I was wrong.
"Agggghhhhhhh! Arrrrrrggh! Ouch! Ow-ow-ow!" I yelled.
While I was putting on antiperspirant, Henry had launched himself onto the back of my leg.
"What is going on in here? Are you all right?" Randy asked, coming into the bathroom.
"I'm fine," I gasped.
By now, my adrenaline level was quite high, and I was beginning to feel shaky.
"If Henry would stop climbing my legs, I would be much better," I said.
My husband shook his head and turned to leave. "Jeepers," he muttered. "Can't a guy even surf the Internet around here without his wife screaming bloody murder in the bathroom?"
I looked down at Henry, Katerina and Dora, who were all three sitting on the rug, looking up at me.
"Okay. That's it. Out you go." I put all three kittens in the hallway and hastily closed the door.
At least now I would be able to finish getting dressed without being attacked.
For the rest of the morning, I felt a little shaky. And then as the adrenaline wore off, I felt tired and worn out.
I have noticed with kittens that the bigger they get, the more painful it becomes when they climb my legs. I have also noticed that after I yell like a couple of times when they are climbing my legs, they eventually get the idea they shouldn't do it.
I'm hoping Henry, Katerina and Dora will get the idea pretty soon not to climb my legs. It's usually Henry, though, who is the culprit.
A tiny bit of progress
Throughout the day, I kept an eye on Duke. At one point in the morning, he got out of the rocking chair for a drink.
A little while later he came back for another drink.
And then he ambled off down the hall to the office. I tiptoed after him.
He was sitting by the chair next to the table in the office where I put out kitty food.
I tiptoed away and tiptoed back a few minutes later.
Duke had jumped up on the table and was eating some dry kitty food! He hadn't eaten anything since Thursday afternoon.
Several more times during the day, Duke went back to the office to get another snack. I have seen him get a couple of drinks from the dish, too. Drinking is good. It will help to flush his kidneys more. Plus it means he is feeling a little bit better.
Saturday evening when it was time to give Duke fluid, he was sleeping by the heat vent in the bathroom. All day he had slept in the rocking chair. But toward evening, he went into the bathroom to sleep by the vent.
Duke was alert while we were giving him fluids. But he never moved. Just stayed by the heat vent. He winces a little when I poke him with the needle (I would too!) but otherwise, he is very good about it and just stays put until we are finished giving him the Lactated Ringers.
It is too early yet to say for sure how Duke is doing. But I do think he is feeling at least somewhat better. Enough better to get a few drinks on his own and to eat a few snacks. I will have to take him back to the vet clinic next week so they can draw more blood and run the kidney function test again.
Sound Asleep
This afternoon, Randy was working on the laptop at the kitchen table. We have been cleaning out the basement over the past month, and he has found a couple of items to sell on eBay. Our basement has become quite cluttered, so it's good to straighten it out, and if Randy can make a couple of dollars selling items we no longer need, that's good too.
Of course, we are cleaning in small sections. And both of us make sure we take antihistamines before we disturb the dust. Even at that, I end up feeling sick for the rest of the day on Saturday and maybe Sunday, too. It was especially bad last week because we worked on cleaning out the utility shelves on the east wall. Because it's a walkout basement, the wall where we put the utility shelving unit is exposed on the outside. As a result, frost builds up on the wall inside the basement when it is very cold. After the frost melts, the concrete stays damp. And because that corner is damp so much of the time, it is prone to black mold behind the shelving unit. Mold, the allergists tell me, is one of the things to which I am very allergic.
Anyway, as Randy was working on the computer Saturday afternoon, Dora climbed up in his lap. And then she climbed up on his shoulders. Snowflake has always liked to sit on shoulders, too. Randy said when she was a tiny kitten, he would put her up on his shoulder to get her out of the way. But Randy has never put Dora up on his shoulders. She climbs up there by herself.
And while Dora was up on Randy's shoulders, she fell sound asleep.
After a little while, she woke up, moved to a different position, and fell sound asleep again.
LeAnn R. Ralph
