what a day
Oh my god, what an up and down day I've had.
My cat Nermal has been having health problems for months now...I don't think I've posted about it before here. In October her face started swelling up. I took her to the vet and he said that he was fairly certain it was a tooth root abscess. He gave her an injection of antibiotics, drew blood and told me to come back in a few days to recheck. The swelling went down with the antibiotics, and when I was back days later, he decided that since it reacted to the antibiotics, it was certainly an infection (and not anything more serious like a tumor). He gave me 14 days worth of antibiotics and wanted to see what happened after she took those. A few days later her bloodwork came back and we found out she has a slight thyroid problem, so he prescribed pills for that. She has to be on those for life. After her antibiotics ran out, the swelling came back, so he said that the only thing to do would be dental surgery to remove the infected tooth, since the infection hadn't gone away on its own. At this point I had already spent around $750, so I told him I would have to wait a few weeks for the surgery. We kept her on antibiotics and scheduled the surgery for early Jan. In Jan, we did the surgery (another $800), and he removed two teeth...however, the teeth he pulled didn't seem to be all that infected. A week later she came off the antibiotics and the swelling on her face came back...except this time, the next time it opened up to this really gross open wound/abscess on her face. Took her back in, he cleaned it and said it was best to leave it open to drain, so she has had this disgusting thing on her face. He referred me to a dental specialist, since he couldn't figure out what was wrong.
Today was the appointment with the dental specialist. I dropped her off in the morning, and a few hours later the doctor called me to tell me he found Nermal has something called feline tooth reabsorption syndrome. She had 5 teeth that needed to come out, it was probably very painful for her and was only going to get worse, not better. Then he told me the total was going to be $1500-$2000. I had enough to pay for $1300. So, I called my parents at home and explained what was going on, hoping I could borrow the rest of the money from them, and resigned myself to being broke for months paying everything off. When I told them what the vet had said, they started laughing. Finally they were able to get out that they hadn't had a chance to call me yet, but just yesterday they had gotten a belated Christmas present from my grandparents, which was supposed to be split between them, myself and my brother. My portion was $2000. My dad went off to the bank to deposit the amount in my account. I couldn't believe it, I was so relieved and happy.
So I called Lee to tell him everything that had happened...and he tells me that he had been called into a meeting in a few hours to discuss whether his job (he is a contractor for the government) was going to be eliminated. He was totally freaked out about losing his job. So I went on with my day, worrying about his job. At 1 the vet called me to come and pick up Nermal. She is fine, but obviously in a lot of pain from having all those teeth pulled at once. The total came to only $1300, which oddly enough was the exact amount I had originally set aside to pay for everything. On the way to the vet, Lee calls me to tell me that he still has his job - they laid off 800 people today, but he got lucky. He has to absorb 4 other positions, and he can't take any vacation time until further notice, but he has a job. All was well in the world.
A few hours later, Lee got called into another meeting and they told him that the government had renegotiated his GSA contract, and if he wants to keep his job he has to take a $10k pay cut. Obviously he has to do it for now, since this is not the time to be unemployed, but he's not sure what he's going to do. He's pretty sure he's going to have to look for a smaller, cheaper place, and understandably he's very upset. It really sucks, I don't have anything I can do for him.
The vet still isn't sure what caused the infection on Nermals face. He doesn't think the problem she had would cause something like that. He said he *thinks* that because the wound opened up and all the infection drained out, that it shouldn't come back. He took a full head xray and didn't see anything obviously wrong. Unfortunately, we have to wait until she's off her antibiotics and the wound heals all the way up to see. If it comes back, I'm probably going to have to take her to another vet, because both of the other vets are stumped. At this point I've spent over $3000 on this, so if it comes back I don't know what I'll do.
Blah. I'm happy my money situation is ok now, but Lee's money situation just became terrible. I'm happy that my cat made it through another surgery and is doing well, but I'm worried that she might still be sick.
My cat Nermal has been having health problems for months now...I don't think I've posted about it before here. In October her face started swelling up. I took her to the vet and he said that he was fairly certain it was a tooth root abscess. He gave her an injection of antibiotics, drew blood and told me to come back in a few days to recheck. The swelling went down with the antibiotics, and when I was back days later, he decided that since it reacted to the antibiotics, it was certainly an infection (and not anything more serious like a tumor). He gave me 14 days worth of antibiotics and wanted to see what happened after she took those. A few days later her bloodwork came back and we found out she has a slight thyroid problem, so he prescribed pills for that. She has to be on those for life. After her antibiotics ran out, the swelling came back, so he said that the only thing to do would be dental surgery to remove the infected tooth, since the infection hadn't gone away on its own. At this point I had already spent around $750, so I told him I would have to wait a few weeks for the surgery. We kept her on antibiotics and scheduled the surgery for early Jan. In Jan, we did the surgery (another $800), and he removed two teeth...however, the teeth he pulled didn't seem to be all that infected. A week later she came off the antibiotics and the swelling on her face came back...except this time, the next time it opened up to this really gross open wound/abscess on her face. Took her back in, he cleaned it and said it was best to leave it open to drain, so she has had this disgusting thing on her face. He referred me to a dental specialist, since he couldn't figure out what was wrong.
Today was the appointment with the dental specialist. I dropped her off in the morning, and a few hours later the doctor called me to tell me he found Nermal has something called feline tooth reabsorption syndrome. She had 5 teeth that needed to come out, it was probably very painful for her and was only going to get worse, not better. Then he told me the total was going to be $1500-$2000. I had enough to pay for $1300. So, I called my parents at home and explained what was going on, hoping I could borrow the rest of the money from them, and resigned myself to being broke for months paying everything off. When I told them what the vet had said, they started laughing. Finally they were able to get out that they hadn't had a chance to call me yet, but just yesterday they had gotten a belated Christmas present from my grandparents, which was supposed to be split between them, myself and my brother. My portion was $2000. My dad went off to the bank to deposit the amount in my account. I couldn't believe it, I was so relieved and happy.
So I called Lee to tell him everything that had happened...and he tells me that he had been called into a meeting in a few hours to discuss whether his job (he is a contractor for the government) was going to be eliminated. He was totally freaked out about losing his job. So I went on with my day, worrying about his job. At 1 the vet called me to come and pick up Nermal. She is fine, but obviously in a lot of pain from having all those teeth pulled at once. The total came to only $1300, which oddly enough was the exact amount I had originally set aside to pay for everything. On the way to the vet, Lee calls me to tell me that he still has his job - they laid off 800 people today, but he got lucky. He has to absorb 4 other positions, and he can't take any vacation time until further notice, but he has a job. All was well in the world.
A few hours later, Lee got called into another meeting and they told him that the government had renegotiated his GSA contract, and if he wants to keep his job he has to take a $10k pay cut. Obviously he has to do it for now, since this is not the time to be unemployed, but he's not sure what he's going to do. He's pretty sure he's going to have to look for a smaller, cheaper place, and understandably he's very upset. It really sucks, I don't have anything I can do for him.
The vet still isn't sure what caused the infection on Nermals face. He doesn't think the problem she had would cause something like that. He said he *thinks* that because the wound opened up and all the infection drained out, that it shouldn't come back. He took a full head xray and didn't see anything obviously wrong. Unfortunately, we have to wait until she's off her antibiotics and the wound heals all the way up to see. If it comes back, I'm probably going to have to take her to another vet, because both of the other vets are stumped. At this point I've spent over $3000 on this, so if it comes back I don't know what I'll do.
Blah. I'm happy my money situation is ok now, but Lee's money situation just became terrible. I'm happy that my cat made it through another surgery and is doing well, but I'm worried that she might still be sick.