Henry

Of course, all of this would happen when we were preparing to head out -of-state for my grandfather’s 90th birthday. Illness waits for no one much less the illness of a cat. Still, that’s my cat whom I’ve loved for 7 years, and I’m not willing to give up without a fight.

Henry started showing signs of a bladder crystal induced urinary blockage on Tuesday. I was having my morning coffee when I heard him start to cry. His “momma help me” cry is distinct so I knew something was up, but in most cases it’s something silly like a piece of paper was stuck to his paw or he couldn’t get his head out of the paper bag handle and was panicking. I came to the call, listening to where he was in the house, only to realize he was by the basement litter. box…and a cry for help from the litter box is never a good sign.

Sure enough, he was straining and clearly in pain. I called the vet right away and was able to get him in. They had to keep him for the day to get him unblocked and medicated, but they had been successful and said his kidney function looks good, so he had a good prognosis. A few meds and a huge bill I put on my credit card later, I was taking my boy home and feeling optimistic we could get him in a good place by the time we had to leave for my Grandfather’s Birthday celebration weekend.

Wednesday he was doing okay. Peeing in small bits. thankfully not crying out in pain so we knew his pain meds were working. He was mostly himself except that he was antisocial with his siblings and wanted to stay in my office with the door closed. Which was fine. We could monitor his litter box and keep him from eating anything outside of his strict prescription diet. He was still loving and let us hold him and snuggle him. He was in the litter box every few minutes and seems to be producing at least a little at a time. All signs pointed to recovery.

Still I worried and fretted myself sick over him come Thursday morning.

I kept checking him all day and he was progressing as he was on Wednesday. Still as the hours of us packing up to leave for our late night drive started getting closer I started to feel something was off. When my husband arrived home, Henry was showing signs of another blockage, and quickly we were able to get him to the vet again.

I sat in the office lobby crying while we waited. So stressed out about how things were going. So worried about my kitty boy. Concerned that we wouldn’t be able to afford further treatments and that we would have to let him go.

They did another flush, gave him some numbing meds for his urethra and some more medications to help him along. They also did a laser treatment to see if that could help the swelling. They got him unblocked quickly and he was much more comfortable the moment we got back in the car.

Still as we drove home I debated on if I wanted to stay home and let my husband go the party. His family would be there and because of our busy lives and general lack of funds, he hadn’t been able to see his family since November.

I cried and worried and fretted until I talked myself through it, and as I verbally processed to my husband on the way home, I realized that I couldn’t control anything. Thats why this was so hard. I was doing all I could to control the controllable, but I had reached my limit. I had done all I could, and my presence or lack-there-of wasn’t going to make a difference. I couldn’t change the outcome if I was there or not.

My friend assured me they were perfectly capable of taking care of my Henry. I had taken care of their cat when they had a similar situation before and went out-of-state to visit family for the holidays. It wasn’t my first rodeo with issues like this in a cat, and it wasn’t theirs either. I needed to stop being a control freak and just let people help me and take care of what I needed to take care of.

Still, as we drove away to start the trip and I typed a care direction text to my friends, I was a sobbing mess.

I’m being hyper vigilant about having my phone on me. Trying to be accessible at all times incase anyone has a question or anything is going wrong. I’m not exactly enjoying myself because of the anxiety of it all, but I’m trying to be present and send as many prayers and good vibes to my boy as I can.