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2024 was the worst year of my life
Dec. 18th, 2024 07:36 amIt's been forever since I blogged. Don't even remember when it was. This year has been probably the worst in my life.
So let's review it from the top:
January 1st: Fifteen minutes before new years my ginger son started screaming in pain. This is obviously not good and it seems like he can't pee. So I call the nearest emergency vet clinic to find out if it's a bring him in right now or a this can wait until your vet office open's on the 2nd of January. Get told it sounds like a urinary tract blockage and so as the new year rings in we are pulling into the emergency vet clinic with Miso. It was indeed a urinary blockage. So 5k later our son is transferred to our vet for another day and we are given some urinary tract diet and told to feed it to him exclusively because our poor boy has urinary tract crystals.
Late January Early February: Miso gets another blockage. Emergency vet tells us he had the same problem and that we should switch to a different brand of cat food for urinary tract crystals. It's the first time I hear of the PU surgery it will not be the last. Another 5k worth of expenses... Miso turns five years old.
The Hills diet does it's job for a bit and we go a few months without a blockage. Our son pees where he wants and we buy some pee resistant blankets and couch covers but at this point even though it's frustrating doing laundry constantly at least he's peeing we've paid an insane amount of money to keep him this way.
Our Dishwasher breaks we don't fix it because we know things aren't done with Miso.
We bring him in for some tests when he starts wetting the bed in his sleep. Nothing is found out of the ordinary.
May happens I turn 40. I expected to be upset at this but my cat is sick and I'm more upset about that.
Late June: Miso is hospitalized at our vet with blockage number 3. PU surgery is mentioned as something to save up for. He comes home after the now sadly routine catheter and observation treatment. He comes home husband goes to work and that afternoon at around lunchtime I call Ian because something is wrong. Our son is incredibly lethargic and not moving. He's alive but something isn't right with him. So I call the vet's office tell him what I'm seeing and he has me check a few things at home.
It's blockage number four so we are sent the links to several animal hospitals because now the PU surgery isn't something to save up for it's something to happen right now. So I call Ian back crying because our son has to go not just the ER but to the serious serious expensive ER's and my experiences with hospitals such as Blue Pearl have not had positive outcomes. Ariel was diagnosed with Poly cystic Kidney Disease at one and died two months later died. And my Joey cat went in for pancreatitis but died after having seizures from a brain tumor we didn't know about at age 17.
So he begins the commute home and I took a deep breath and called animal hospitals. We find one that does the procedure and do the long drive two hours south to them. The surgery which would essentially make him a girl kitty down below with a wider urethra than a male kitty is expected to cost 7 grand.
We scrape together that much money, barely and tell them we can't afford more than that. His kidneys have issues so it takes a few days to do the surgery and then afterwards his Buns and Creatine levels don't go downwards as much as they'd like and he's not eating afterwards and the surgeon didn't want him coming home because of his fever. So they give him two days free (hospital was lovely). Throughout this the staff fall in love with my sweetest child. Seriously, Miso was the sweetest most chill dude in the existence of this planet.
I'd love to say when we got him back on the third of July everything went well and things were okay but it wasn't that type of year. We get him back we follow the instructions on his meds, his appetite stimulant etc.
We call for more instructions because he's not eating. We give him babyfood but he barely touches it.
Fourth of July is spent tending the cat and listening to our other cats complain we won't let them near our boy and getting whatever food we can into him. We are using a syringe and giving him food because our big eater won't touch it
Fifth of July he has his post op check with our vet. a few levels are high and we're told if we can't get him to eat he'll die but his kidneys seem okay. We get a new appetite stimulant and use it.
Sixth of July: We spend day begging him to eat as he's begun to just drip the food out of his mouth. We know what's coming....
Seventh of July: We bring him into the ER because he's not doing well at all and we need to know whats going on. We tell them how much money we have which isn't much. Turns out there's yellow fluid in every part of his body. On the way there he started being unable to breathe well so he's on oxygen. They tell us there's nothing that can be done. Luckily it costs just what we had to pay. And we have him put to sleep.
So my five year old died. It's been months and I'm still crying. It doesn't help the music just switched from whiter shade of pale to I will always love you...
So Miso is dead and I'm reeling from that. A few months later we notice Jasper's eye doesn't look right. So off we go to the vet.
His eye issue isn't a big deal, his nerve is broken and it's going blind but the important problem is we did blood work and caught Kidney disease early. Jasper was found three years ago but is an old boy of unknown old boy age. We buy Kidney diet but he refuses to eat it. So we don't know how long we'll have him.
Then in another not cat related disaster our bathroom wall tiles start falling off the wall. It needs repair. We don't have money so we hang a plastic shower curtain on the wall.
December 6: Mushi vomits and I don't hear it or see it,at five oclock I'm headed to the bathroom before I call Ian and end up doing an involuntary split as I slip on cat sick. I sprain my knee and still can't walk on it. Just got some new meds after a check up yesterday that should help with that.
December 13: Mushi (14, we've had him for 13 years) and Nori (4 we've had him since he was a kitten) head to the vet. Nori is fine. A healthy black cat. Mushi is two pounds lighter (he's a chonker) and the vet doesn't like his urine consistency. Thinks he's diabetic.
December 16: Vet calls. Mushi isn't diabetic. Mushi has kidney disease. Best case is we get another two years.
I wasn't ready to acknowledge that my son is getting old especially in a year that I lost my Ginger son.
So let's review it from the top:
January 1st: Fifteen minutes before new years my ginger son started screaming in pain. This is obviously not good and it seems like he can't pee. So I call the nearest emergency vet clinic to find out if it's a bring him in right now or a this can wait until your vet office open's on the 2nd of January. Get told it sounds like a urinary tract blockage and so as the new year rings in we are pulling into the emergency vet clinic with Miso. It was indeed a urinary blockage. So 5k later our son is transferred to our vet for another day and we are given some urinary tract diet and told to feed it to him exclusively because our poor boy has urinary tract crystals.
Late January Early February: Miso gets another blockage. Emergency vet tells us he had the same problem and that we should switch to a different brand of cat food for urinary tract crystals. It's the first time I hear of the PU surgery it will not be the last. Another 5k worth of expenses... Miso turns five years old.
The Hills diet does it's job for a bit and we go a few months without a blockage. Our son pees where he wants and we buy some pee resistant blankets and couch covers but at this point even though it's frustrating doing laundry constantly at least he's peeing we've paid an insane amount of money to keep him this way.
Our Dishwasher breaks we don't fix it because we know things aren't done with Miso.
We bring him in for some tests when he starts wetting the bed in his sleep. Nothing is found out of the ordinary.
May happens I turn 40. I expected to be upset at this but my cat is sick and I'm more upset about that.
Late June: Miso is hospitalized at our vet with blockage number 3. PU surgery is mentioned as something to save up for. He comes home after the now sadly routine catheter and observation treatment. He comes home husband goes to work and that afternoon at around lunchtime I call Ian because something is wrong. Our son is incredibly lethargic and not moving. He's alive but something isn't right with him. So I call the vet's office tell him what I'm seeing and he has me check a few things at home.
It's blockage number four so we are sent the links to several animal hospitals because now the PU surgery isn't something to save up for it's something to happen right now. So I call Ian back crying because our son has to go not just the ER but to the serious serious expensive ER's and my experiences with hospitals such as Blue Pearl have not had positive outcomes. Ariel was diagnosed with Poly cystic Kidney Disease at one and died two months later died. And my Joey cat went in for pancreatitis but died after having seizures from a brain tumor we didn't know about at age 17.
So he begins the commute home and I took a deep breath and called animal hospitals. We find one that does the procedure and do the long drive two hours south to them. The surgery which would essentially make him a girl kitty down below with a wider urethra than a male kitty is expected to cost 7 grand.
We scrape together that much money, barely and tell them we can't afford more than that. His kidneys have issues so it takes a few days to do the surgery and then afterwards his Buns and Creatine levels don't go downwards as much as they'd like and he's not eating afterwards and the surgeon didn't want him coming home because of his fever. So they give him two days free (hospital was lovely). Throughout this the staff fall in love with my sweetest child. Seriously, Miso was the sweetest most chill dude in the existence of this planet.
I'd love to say when we got him back on the third of July everything went well and things were okay but it wasn't that type of year. We get him back we follow the instructions on his meds, his appetite stimulant etc.
We call for more instructions because he's not eating. We give him babyfood but he barely touches it.
Fourth of July is spent tending the cat and listening to our other cats complain we won't let them near our boy and getting whatever food we can into him. We are using a syringe and giving him food because our big eater won't touch it
Fifth of July he has his post op check with our vet. a few levels are high and we're told if we can't get him to eat he'll die but his kidneys seem okay. We get a new appetite stimulant and use it.
Sixth of July: We spend day begging him to eat as he's begun to just drip the food out of his mouth. We know what's coming....
Seventh of July: We bring him into the ER because he's not doing well at all and we need to know whats going on. We tell them how much money we have which isn't much. Turns out there's yellow fluid in every part of his body. On the way there he started being unable to breathe well so he's on oxygen. They tell us there's nothing that can be done. Luckily it costs just what we had to pay. And we have him put to sleep.
So my five year old died. It's been months and I'm still crying. It doesn't help the music just switched from whiter shade of pale to I will always love you...
So Miso is dead and I'm reeling from that. A few months later we notice Jasper's eye doesn't look right. So off we go to the vet.
His eye issue isn't a big deal, his nerve is broken and it's going blind but the important problem is we did blood work and caught Kidney disease early. Jasper was found three years ago but is an old boy of unknown old boy age. We buy Kidney diet but he refuses to eat it. So we don't know how long we'll have him.
Then in another not cat related disaster our bathroom wall tiles start falling off the wall. It needs repair. We don't have money so we hang a plastic shower curtain on the wall.
December 6: Mushi vomits and I don't hear it or see it,at five oclock I'm headed to the bathroom before I call Ian and end up doing an involuntary split as I slip on cat sick. I sprain my knee and still can't walk on it. Just got some new meds after a check up yesterday that should help with that.
December 13: Mushi (14, we've had him for 13 years) and Nori (4 we've had him since he was a kitten) head to the vet. Nori is fine. A healthy black cat. Mushi is two pounds lighter (he's a chonker) and the vet doesn't like his urine consistency. Thinks he's diabetic.
December 16: Vet calls. Mushi isn't diabetic. Mushi has kidney disease. Best case is we get another two years.
I wasn't ready to acknowledge that my son is getting old especially in a year that I lost my Ginger son.
