yesterday morning, the last day of the year, i woke up to see chester lying on the bathroom rug in front of the shower.  chester never, ever does this, and i knew that something was wrong.  he was acting lethargic, and i worried that his blood level had dropped because we started giving him one more unit of insulin on friday night.  since low blood sugar happened to winnie once, and it was awful, i had been nervous about giving chester 8 units twice a day instead of seven.  seven or eight, they’re both pretty big numbers for a cat, but chester’s levels have never been good ever since he’s had diabetes.

we tested his blood, somehow managing to do that even though i had literally just woken up and chester doesn’t like to be held in the best of circumstances.  his level was 292, which is very high, instead of low, which we’d thought it would be. hmm.  we didn’t know what to do – it was sunday, it was new year’s eve day, of course the vet wasn’t open.  so i called the emergency vet and they said to check it again in a half hour.

we did, and it was about the same number.  chester, meanwhile, was struggling to even walk, so we loaded him into the car and off to the emergency clinic.  on the way there, kevin said he thought chester’s organs were shutting down, meaning he was going to die.

But they checked his blood, and we waited around a good long time, but they finally said his blood levels were fine, and he’d be ok til we could take him to our vet on tuesday.  i know that much more was explained, but now we can’t remember because of the amount of stuff that has happened since.

whew.  we got almost home and my phone rang – they did a ketone test, and his ketone level was really high, and we needed to bring him right back again.

i’m having difficulty wrapping my head around the meaning of ketones, but on one web site it explained that “The term “ketoacidosis” refers to a condition in which levels of acid abnormally increased in the blood due to presence of “ketone bodies.” ketones are bad, they make the blood sugar spike, and you have to give the cat lots of fluid to flush out the ketones.

so we left him there, and he’s still there now, and we’re not sure about the prognosis.  last night they said he was eating, a good sign, and seemed a bit feisty, also good – but this morning he didn’t eat much and he had a fever and his levels were still really high.  i called this afternoon they wanted me to bring in his regular insulin, so i did that.  i was surprised when i got there that they brought him out and i could pet him.  he seemed to be – well, he didn’t seem to be in very good shape, but of course he’d spent the night in a cage with an IV, plus all the poking to draw blood and everything.

a vet came in and said that maybe he’d get to come home tonight; his blood sugar levels were better, and if they continue to improve, we might be able to pick him up later, around 10 or so.

hmm, i just don’t know what to think now; i don’t want to go get him if he’s not better, but they wouldn’t send him home if he’s not fine, right?  he just seemed like he had a long way to go to being “fine.”

if he spend the night there again tonight, kevin will have to go pick him up in the morning before eight, because the emergency vet closes then, and he’ll have to take him to our vet.  oh yeah, and kevin started getting a bad cold last night, which is why he didn’t go with me today.  but i have to work really early in the morning, so it’d be all up to him.

so…a lousy ending to the year, but the new year could certainly have started out worse.  now it’s just wait and see.

poor little kitty.  hopefully things will improve.

ok then,

mrs. january 1st hughes.