A Writer's Notebook, Day Ninety-Nine
I began with the writing this morning as intended, but did not have a chance to do a blog entry. Indeed, much of my plans for the day have been altered due to circumstances that are outside my control. In 2015, Melissa and I adopted a kitten whom we named Ulysses. He, from the start, was an amazing, sweet and spirited cat who decided he wanted to go home with us at the shelter.
It was not long, however, from when we adopted him that we found out Ulysses had issues. The shelter claims that they did not know, but it seems unlikely to us, as we noticed almost immediately. The thing is, Ulysses has seizures. The first week we had him, we were preparing to bring him to the vet and he suddenly started to have a fit in front of me. We brought him in and they expected it was nothing, but he continued to have fits and more serious seizure episodes.
For a long period as a kitten, Ulysses was spending almost every weekend in the hospital, with us driving him to the emergency vet late at night for another seizure. Eventually, we found a great veterinary specialty hospital that has a neurology department and he has been doing quite well. It is a lot of work, as we need to give him medicine four times a day, including at four in the morning. Fortunately, we are blessed that he has become quite good at taking his medicine and it is often not all that difficult. It may seem impossible, but he is a cat who is well behaved and will even come when called for his daily dosage, at least some of the time.
The last time we brought Ulysses to the neurologist, it was determined that she needed to have some changes to the dosages he gets of certain medicines, in order to prevent other potential problems down the line. That is not always easy and it can upset his condition. Which is exactly what happened.
Now, Ulysses gets a variety of different types of seizures. In the most incapacitating and dramatic grand mal type, he will often lie with his head shaking and his mouth opening and closing. In some, he will lose control of his body for a moment and fall, then not know what happened. Their are also some where he will get disoriented and frightened and suddenly start to his and scratch, while seeming to lose control of his back legs.
This last type usually only happens when he is asleep. He will wake up and suddenly start to hiss and run in a circle. However, in recent days, he has had a few of these episodes at other times. During Thanksgiving, he had one in the living room while guests were enjoying their drinks. I am good at handling him in these situations, but it can be rather scary to see and he gets very violent at the time. It is the literal equivalent of the cat cartoon image of an angry cat as bundle of scratches and hisses.
Today, he had a number of these events, to the point that we had to call the vet and then give him a suppository to calm him down and get him through tonight. He is doing okay, but it is always scary. When he was a kitten, we had many times we thought he would not make it, and we know that he is still in danger, as a result of his condition. Our neurologist is fairly direct about that, and has said she isn't certain of his long term care, depending on how he responds to treatment in the future.
The point is, today I was derailed by all of that, so I am going to sign off early, and make tomorrow a fresh start. I hope that he will be feeling okay and that I will be able to do the work I need to. It is not all that difficult to get caught up if I do my work... If not, of course, he comes first, and I am not going to pretend that isn't the case.
For those who are skeptical that a cat will take medicine without too much trouble:
It was not long, however, from when we adopted him that we found out Ulysses had issues. The shelter claims that they did not know, but it seems unlikely to us, as we noticed almost immediately. The thing is, Ulysses has seizures. The first week we had him, we were preparing to bring him to the vet and he suddenly started to have a fit in front of me. We brought him in and they expected it was nothing, but he continued to have fits and more serious seizure episodes.
For a long period as a kitten, Ulysses was spending almost every weekend in the hospital, with us driving him to the emergency vet late at night for another seizure. Eventually, we found a great veterinary specialty hospital that has a neurology department and he has been doing quite well. It is a lot of work, as we need to give him medicine four times a day, including at four in the morning. Fortunately, we are blessed that he has become quite good at taking his medicine and it is often not all that difficult. It may seem impossible, but he is a cat who is well behaved and will even come when called for his daily dosage, at least some of the time.
The last time we brought Ulysses to the neurologist, it was determined that she needed to have some changes to the dosages he gets of certain medicines, in order to prevent other potential problems down the line. That is not always easy and it can upset his condition. Which is exactly what happened.
Now, Ulysses gets a variety of different types of seizures. In the most incapacitating and dramatic grand mal type, he will often lie with his head shaking and his mouth opening and closing. In some, he will lose control of his body for a moment and fall, then not know what happened. Their are also some where he will get disoriented and frightened and suddenly start to his and scratch, while seeming to lose control of his back legs.
This last type usually only happens when he is asleep. He will wake up and suddenly start to hiss and run in a circle. However, in recent days, he has had a few of these episodes at other times. During Thanksgiving, he had one in the living room while guests were enjoying their drinks. I am good at handling him in these situations, but it can be rather scary to see and he gets very violent at the time. It is the literal equivalent of the cat cartoon image of an angry cat as bundle of scratches and hisses.
Today, he had a number of these events, to the point that we had to call the vet and then give him a suppository to calm him down and get him through tonight. He is doing okay, but it is always scary. When he was a kitten, we had many times we thought he would not make it, and we know that he is still in danger, as a result of his condition. Our neurologist is fairly direct about that, and has said she isn't certain of his long term care, depending on how he responds to treatment in the future.
The point is, today I was derailed by all of that, so I am going to sign off early, and make tomorrow a fresh start. I hope that he will be feeling okay and that I will be able to do the work I need to. It is not all that difficult to get caught up if I do my work... If not, of course, he comes first, and I am not going to pretend that isn't the case.
For those who are skeptical that a cat will take medicine without too much trouble:
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