So backing up a few months again (maybe one day I'll be able to keep this updated as things actually happen instead of posting about things 2 months after they happen), I had my final battle wih Murphy's Law...at least my final battle until Mr. V deploys again. A 7 month deployment isn't so bad right? Some military wives have to endure 15 month deployments so I figured that while it would suck, I could easily handle a 7 month deployment. Well...I handled it, but not without wanting to shoot myself, or shoot Murphy.
Just when I thought that it couldn't get any worse, it did. You would have thought that by this point I would know to never think "it can't get any worse!" Well, about 2 weeks before Mr. V came home, one of my cats got really, really sick. This wasn't just any cat either. This was Moses, my "replacement" cat for the one that I lost to leukemia 2 years ago. While I know that he could never completely replace the one that I lost, he still means so much to me because he filled the hole in my heart when little Cledus died. So out of all of my cats, this was the 2nd worst one that it could happen to (the first being my original Wendy :-)). I woke up one day and noticed that he seemed a little lethargic. This was weird, but since they sleep almost all day anyway I just waited to see what happened later on that day. That evening when I fed them all, Moses didn't come running to the food. This was odd, very odd. He always comes running when he hears the food. I searched him out and found him sleeping on my bed. I picked him up and brought him to the food where he proceeded to fall asleep with his head in the food bowl. Thats when I realized that some was REALLY wrong. I was actually talking to Mr. V online at the time so I told him I was going to take Moses to the emergency vet. I called a friend of mine who is a vet tech, and she offered to go with me. The Pet Emergency Center is 45 minutes away so I welcomed the company.
It turned out that Moses had a common problem in male cats - he had crystals in his urine, which had caused a blockage, and he needed to have his bladder drained. This was bad, but curable. The only problem was that Moses was acting completely fine until the day I noticed that something was wrong. By that point he had progressed to a stage where the problem was more severe. He stayed overnight at the PEC, and then was brought to the local vet in the morning where he spent another week. An ultrasound showed that not only did he have crystals, but he also had bladder stones, so emergency bladder surgery was preformed. During the surgery, they found urine in his abdomen, which indicated that he had a tear in his urethra. This was bad, very bad, because if that tear didn't heal, there was no chance of him surviving. There was just no way. He also had kidney levels that were off the charts and a horrible bladder infection which I guess goes without saying.
At that point the vet called me and told me that he had less than a 1% chance of survival and asked if I wanted to have him euthanized right then, since he was already out under anesthesia. Well I panicked. I freaked out. I could barely even process what she had told me because I thought that crystals were a routine problem! I never even dreamed that it could be as bad as it was! I told her no, I didn't want him put to sleep yet. I had to talk to my husband. I had to process everything she just told me and I was babysitting at the time which meant that I couldn't even be there to say goodbye to him. He wasn't even guaranteed to live past the few hours it took for me to finally get everything straightened out. But...thankfully, I DID say no. And thankfully, the vet that had taken his case was a vet who specialized in critical care. She personally didn't have the ability/knowledge to save him, but I am so thankful that she called a specialist and read some case studies. In the time it took for me to track down Mr. V in Iraq and for the lady I was babysitting for to come home, she had increased his chances of survival to 20%. I am so thankful for a good friend of mine who dropped everything she was doing to come to the vet with me at this point. I didn't know what was going to happen and I didn't want to be alone.
At this point the vet told me his chances of survival had increased but he was far, far away from being out of the woods yet. I didn't want to have him put to sleep when I wasn't there to say goodbye earlier, but I also didn't want him to suffer, so I asked her to tell me the truth and if she thought that I just needed to have it done. She said that while things were still really, really bad, she didn't think it was time to give up hope yet. That was all it took for me to say "do whatever needs to be done."
So to make a long story short, after a week in the hospital hooked up to a catheter and IVs, his urethra tear healed. His bladder cleared up and the crystals disappeared. Unfortunately, he now had a nasty infection to fight off. Between his kidneys and his bladder he was a mess. Once the urethra tear healed (which in itself is apparently something close to a miracle!), his biggest problem was the infection. If it didn't go away, it would kill him.. 2 months, 4 rounds of antibiotics and several thousands of dollars later, I took Moses in for his final checkup. That was 2 weeks ago. He recovered like a champ!! He's truly my miracle cat and I am so thankful that I said no when they asked if I wanted him euthanized right then and there. I am also so thankful for the vet who took the time to really research his case and to go out of her way to help him. Moses will have to eat a prescription food for the rest of his life. Unfortunately, due to the severity of what happened to him, I was told that he isn't likely to survive this if it happens again. Thankfully, the food should prevent it from happening again. As much as I wanted to deny that he was really sick, I also have to admit that I wasn't sure that this day would come. Each re-check that he had made me so nervous because it took so long to get completely good news. But the last one was good. My Moses is a fighter and hopefully he'll be around for many, many more years :-).
So let's recap:
In the 7 months that Mr. V was gone:
~A shelf fell down in the closet. And of course it was the type of shelf that can't just be replaced easily, it needs to be reinstalled. Needless to say, the closet held all of Mr. V's clothes so I decided to completely ignore that one until he got home.
~Our lawnmower didn't work, which led to 2 foot high grass (call me stupid but I wouldn't even begin to know how to buy a lawnmower), so finally a neighbor took pity on me and mowed half of my front lawn. He sent his son over to mow the rest, and a friend's husband spent 3 days untangling the jungle in my backyard. Needless to say, this was the perfect time for Washington to have a drought. I know a lot of people were freaking out about the lack of rain. But for me, that meant dead grass. Dead grass doesn't grow so after the neighbor and the friend's husband took pity on me, my lawn stayed dead until about a month ago. Thankfully, Mr. V is now home to deal with it.
~I had one cat peeing all over the house, but with 9 it was impossible to figure out which one it was. Feliway diffusers are a great invention. They give off pheromones that are supposed to calm cats down. I already had 2 plugged in, but I resorted to plugging one in in every single room of the house. Thankfully, that seemed to work. It turns out that I found the cat doing the damage and he apparently suffers from separation anxiety and wasn't ok with Mr. V being gone. I can't WAIT to deal with that again!
~The system failure light came on in my car, followed by the maintenance required light. My car wasn't scheduled for any maintenance so this was confusing. 2 months later my car battery died as I was getting onto a ferry. It didn't just run out and need to be jump started. It died. Thankfully, the ferry workers were able to get it started to at least get me back home. I still have no idea if thats why my maintenance required light came on, but I do know that your battery dying right as the ferry is starting to load, isn't a good thing.
~Our dishwasher died. I don't think I need to explain the annoyance about that! I didn't get a new one until Mr. V came home because to save money, he wanted to be the one to install it. So I spent 6 months washing dishes by hand. I realize this isn't an extreme tragedy, but I hate washing dishes, so this really sucked for me.
~My dryer started making a screeching sound but it appeared that it was going to hold out for me. Then 3 weeks before Mr. V came home, it died. Not a huge deal right? I can line dry things. However, try line drying something in a state like Washington. Even hanging in my garage, which is dry, my clothes wouldn't dry because of all the humidity and moisture in the air. Then after Mr. V came home and we bought a new one, it wasn't delivered to us until 3 weeks later (all of their dryers were out of stock). Towels and jeans get awfully crunchy when you can't dry them in a dryer or hang them in the nice spring air!
~The cat that I was babysitting for a friend of mine for the length of the deployment developed a hernia.
~I started driving Mr. V's car because by the time my battery died I felt so drained that I just didn't want to deal with it. I decided to drive his car until he came home only to have it start making an obnoxious clanking sound underneath it. When I took it to a mechanic he informed me that I was absolutely NOT going to drive out of his parking lot without a complete set of new tires because apparently the tires that I had were so worn that they were dangerous. When I told Mr. V this he said "Oh yeah, I've known since Jacksonville that I needed new tires." Thanks Mr. V! By that point we had only been out of Jacksonville for a YEAR!! That would have been helpful to know. Needless to say, I got new tires, but the source of the clanking sound was never found. Amazingly, once Mr. V came home, the sound disappeared. Grrrr.
~2 lights burnt out in the living room. Normally this wouldn't be a big deal, but these lights are the ONLY lights in the house that aren't standard sized. When we first moved here it took Mr. V 2 months to finally find the correct size light bulb. It took me a few tries too.
~The hose broke. I didn't even know that could happen, but apparently a hose left in the heat can form bubbles that create a thin spot, which creates a pinprick sized hole. Several of these pin prick holes make for a useless hose. This is a big deal when I need to hose out and scrub down litter boxes once a week. Thankfully, buying a new hose is an easy task.
~Our sink clogged and it took hours and lots and lots of draino to unclog it. It took a lot of self control to not throw up while that was going on. Its also hard to prevent cats from drinking the standing water, but I wasn't about to deal with draino poisoning. I think that was the night that I finally broke down and cried my eyes out.
~We got termites. I don't think I need to explain why thats a bad thing!
~And finally, there was Moses.
I can't wait to see what goes wrong the next time he deploys!
Edited to add: My grandma also died. I don't even know how I managed to forget that when I was writing this.
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