Posted by pegasus on June 20, 2005, at 8:51:54
Yesterday was a really hard day for me. My kitty, who is 19, is having a lot of health problems. I know it's to be expected in a cat that elderly.
And yet, she's been with me since she was a little kitten, and it's hard to face her decline.The problem that became urgent yesterday is that she can't really poop on her own in any regular way. We've been giving her subcutaneous fluids and a stool softener to help, but by yesterday, she was in pretty bad shape anyway. I'll spare you the details, but it was clear that we needed to administer an enema. The vet had shown us how a while back, anticipating this day.
So, my day was filled with extremely gross and heartbreaking activities. She was so sick she couldn't even fight me much. :(
But anyway it seems to have worked. I've cleaned her up (along with the entire bathroom - yuck!), and she's feeling and looking much better, although very weak.
And this is related to psychology, because, after it was all over, and she was drying herself from her bath, I kind of fell apart last night. Couldn't deal with anything. I had to do some serious dissociating to make it through the night (but I didn't SI!). So many unacceptable images from yesterday. And today I seem to have a case of the permanent heebie jeebies, and keep washing my hands when they're perfectly clean.
The one bright point, was actually also at the low point, when my husband was holding the (horribly stinky) cat in the bathtub and I was administering the enema, and the baby started screaming in the other room. My husband turned to me and said, "I love you" with a smile. It put the whole thing in a different, much needed, perspective.
But, oy, I hope I never have another day like that.
pegasus
poster:pegasus
thread:515921
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20050615/msgs/515921.html