Saturday, November 03, 2012
Not normal.
Some things were almost normal about this Saturday.
We were up early and went to Ford.
I found it hard to concentrate - maybe the cold wind, maybe pain in my mouth or maybe the general malaise and anxiety.
I bought half a dozen things - somethings to keep my section at Dorking ineteresting.
We popped into Littlehampton afterwards for a very short while.
We just had a hot drink in The George. The sun was streaming through the window and it was relaxing.
After a late lunch we went to Lidl - closer than Aldi.
We were happy to meet old friends there.
It was during lunchtime that we realised that this was not a normal Saturday.
We had not spent too long in Littlehampton because we had to get back to take Harry cat to the vet.
Harry is not well. He has not eaten now for almost 10 days.
Lawrence, the vet, said that he is not healing. I guess at his age (16 and a half) maybe his immune system is poor.
Lawrence outline two plans.
The first one involved further surgery to sort out the infected mouth and wounds where extractions had taken place. Obviously he still wouldn't be able to eat, so it was proposed that a feeding tube be inserted into the neck. We would feed him through the tube until such time as his mouth might be healed. But there could be no guarantees that all would be well.
Somehow it didn't sound right and we also worried about cost. That does sound mercenary, but when a cat is old and suffering it might be money completely wasted.
The other option was to give him a high dose antibiotic and much higher pain relief. It could allow some healing.
Once again there could be no guarantee.
It was the option we went for. So we brought him home to begin twice daily medication with morphine.
In our hearts we know, Bill, me and the vet, that probably Harry won't recover.
I think Harry knows too.
An animal can have no concept of the end of life and yet their behaviour often changes - so much so that if they can, they creep away to be alone somewhere to die. Maybe that's what happened to our very first cat.
Harry has been on our bed since coming home from the vet - a place he hasn't been until today. We will allow him complete choice to stay there.
I did bring him down to sit on me for a while this evening, but he chose to return to the bed and be alone.
On Wednesday we will take him back to Lawrence. If there has been no improvement, then sadly he will not be returning home.
I know that we have made the right choice for Harry. It has to be. But it will be hard - the next few days, and particularly Wednesday.
We were up early and went to Ford.
I found it hard to concentrate - maybe the cold wind, maybe pain in my mouth or maybe the general malaise and anxiety.
I bought half a dozen things - somethings to keep my section at Dorking ineteresting.
We popped into Littlehampton afterwards for a very short while.
We just had a hot drink in The George. The sun was streaming through the window and it was relaxing.
After a late lunch we went to Lidl - closer than Aldi.
We were happy to meet old friends there.
It was during lunchtime that we realised that this was not a normal Saturday.
We had not spent too long in Littlehampton because we had to get back to take Harry cat to the vet.
Harry is not well. He has not eaten now for almost 10 days.
Lawrence, the vet, said that he is not healing. I guess at his age (16 and a half) maybe his immune system is poor.
Lawrence outline two plans.
The first one involved further surgery to sort out the infected mouth and wounds where extractions had taken place. Obviously he still wouldn't be able to eat, so it was proposed that a feeding tube be inserted into the neck. We would feed him through the tube until such time as his mouth might be healed. But there could be no guarantees that all would be well.
Somehow it didn't sound right and we also worried about cost. That does sound mercenary, but when a cat is old and suffering it might be money completely wasted.
The other option was to give him a high dose antibiotic and much higher pain relief. It could allow some healing.
Once again there could be no guarantee.
It was the option we went for. So we brought him home to begin twice daily medication with morphine.
In our hearts we know, Bill, me and the vet, that probably Harry won't recover.
I think Harry knows too.
An animal can have no concept of the end of life and yet their behaviour often changes - so much so that if they can, they creep away to be alone somewhere to die. Maybe that's what happened to our very first cat.
Harry has been on our bed since coming home from the vet - a place he hasn't been until today. We will allow him complete choice to stay there.
I did bring him down to sit on me for a while this evening, but he chose to return to the bed and be alone.
On Wednesday we will take him back to Lawrence. If there has been no improvement, then sadly he will not be returning home.
I know that we have made the right choice for Harry. It has to be. But it will be hard - the next few days, and particularly Wednesday.
