It's been a long week and weekend. Beautiful out, temperatures in the 70s. The hubby worked long hours and saw little of it from his desk.
I walked Mav the dog all around the neighborhood, her always-been-strange gait even more pronounced. Wednesday, she stopped jumping up in the sink to drink water out of a bowl (don't even ask) and started drinking from the elaborate kitty fountain on the kitchen floor.
In other words, who is this dog?
Something was off, and although she didn't seem to be in any pain, I took her in to see the vet on Thursday just to calm my mind.
Our vet did a thorough exam and Mav did not pass. He said it might be osteoarthritis. Although fully booked Friday, he had me call through the morning to see how his surgeries were going, fitting me in around 10 am. Although she wasn' put under general anesthesia, she was knocked out with sedatives so that he could take X-rays and perform some other tests. I walked the Target across the street for an hour, waiting for the call to come back and get her.
I sat in my car after I could stand Target no more. I wish I liked Target more. Ours seems to have little selection and ridiculous prices.
I finally talked to the vet on the phone, where he informed me that a number of tests were completed and the meds had been given to Mav to wake her up. The X-ray results were neither the worst possible scenario or the best (that would be nothing). Turns out he had been worried yesterday about a list of horrible other lumbar and bone diseases that he had decided not to tell me about at the time.
Sometimes I want to hug him but always stop myself. Thank God we were on the phone.
He told me that she did in fact have severe osteoarthritis in her left hip. I was incredibly grateful. Anything that wins over "we're putting her down" disease is a victory.
I went to the office to get her and go over the X-rays. They had let her free in the back like she was Penny, the vet's Pug. She was behind the check out desk with the 2 techs. Seeing her broke my heart.
She could barely stand and was so out of it from the narcotics. They stuck us in a room pretty fast since she could hear me but not see me over the counter. She just came over and stood by me, staring at me like "What did I do to you to deserve this?" I petted her and kissed her forehead as if dogs find that comforting.
The vet came in to talk to me. At one point, in the middle of his explaining things to me, she walked into the corner and stuck her head as far as she could where wall met wall. Then she sort of swayed and looked like she might die any second. I sort of patted her with increasing force (lovingly?) and let out a worried "Mav? Hey? Mav? HEY? MAV? HEY MAV!" and she barely even responded.
The vet just laughed like my reaction was weird and said, "She's just watching the pretty pictures on her eye lids from the medication."
He jumped right back into talking about the X-rays, which were jarring to say the least. Her left hip looked nothing like her right, which was what a hip should look like. 75% of it was out of the socket and it was extremely misshapen. I listened for about half an hour as he explained in depth about what exactly was messed up in her left hip, what the future would hold (right hip will probably end up matching the left in time), and what treatments we would be trying (basically it will be the same sort of situation as with a human with severe osteoarthritis). Just one of the medications costs $3 a day. Add to that all the tests and vet costs and I probably don't have to say that I emptied a giant chunk of our bank account at the desk. I then took Mav to the car, where she couldn't even get in on her own.
I spent Friday sitting next to a dog who I had to help on and off the couch and who looked like she was going to A) pass out B) vomit or C) have a seizure any minute. It was a long day.
Just adding another diagnosis to the list - she already has epilepsy, hypothyroidism, a plethora of cysts and tumors... Now, osteoarthritis.
My husband came home after his own long day and she perked up, so he really couldn't understand the hours of stress I had been through. A friend at work gave him some games to try on his new PS3 (hooray for his work's gift card program! Free PS3!), so I lost him for the weekend to that. He was playing something where he was either shooting a deer or roping a horse or herding some cattle whenever I walked through the room.
Being from South Dakota, I found this to be the weirdest game ever. He was happy with it, so that's all that matters. I was happy being a gamer widow for a weekend. I felt unable to summon any energy to do anything. Getting out of bed was a major accomplishment. At one point this weekend, I knocked, with no help from the kitties or any other outside source, a full glass of steaming hot tea all over my computer desk and lap. And then instead of springing into action, I just sort of sat there and looked at it like maybe if I waited long enough, it wouldn't have happened.
I attempted to cook. Not good.
Wanted to clean. Didn't happen.
Kept a close eye on Mav. As in barely let her out of my sight.
Thought I should try to drink the orange juice we'd had from Sam's Club and had opened what I thought was a week or so ago. Drank like a gallon of that in a 36 hour period when my husband noticed and informed me that the expiration date was also over a week ago. As in 2 weeks ago. Which may or may not explain why I felt unlike myself.
Add to all this that the most energized and awake I felt was from around 11 pm - 5 am. I just could not sleep. I kept thinking about things I wanted to organize in the house and how I wanted to organize them. At one point, I think I got up and reorganized my coupons and arranged them in some particular order by date and type and store.
I don't know if we're ever dating again at this point. Since I think I'm good staying in the house for... The rest of my life.
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