It's been a tough 2 weeks!

Mom has had a bad couple of weeks. I feel bad for her. This week she has been extremely sick and only managed to come out of bed yesterday...she had to go to work because there was no one to cover her shift. I could tell she felt awful but she made it through the day (as usual) and came home and took care of her family. I really do love her even if I act bratty towards her on most days.

Last week she had one extremely bad day. On Thursday, her first patient of the day, was at the hospital for a routine recheck exam. A healthy 8 year old male kitty who had lost some weight while the owner was on vacation. Mom went in to the exam room and took vitals on him...all the while he was purring away. The doctor went in afterward and did her physical exam. It was completely normal except for a slight murmur that she had never heard before. They decided that they should take his blood pressure, get a blood panel with urine and take some chest films. They brought him back and mom got the Doppler ready for blood pressure reading. The kitty was purring and getting petted by another nurse while mom gathered all of the supplies. When they went to shave his fur for the blood pressure reading, he got distressed and collapsed. Immediately his heart stopped and they performed CPR for 20 minutes. He was defibrillated 3 times, unsuccessfully. After the 20 minutes, they pronounced him dead. It was devastating to the owner, who was merely there with a healthy cat, so she thought. It was also devastating for the entire staff of the hospital (mom and doctor mostly because it was their patient) because they couldn't understand what had happened. It was later determined that he most likely died of a blood clot or a heart attack (the later is more likely due to the new murmur that was found on exam).
Mom's day was not god after that. It's hard enough to be cheerful when you are dealing with sick animals on a daily basis but after something so shocking, it really is hard to put on a smiling face for the next client. But the day went on and mom made it through (as usual). Then she came home and took care of her family. I do love mom and wish she didn't have such stressful days. Maybe I'll be extra nice to her this week.

RIP Mario!!!

Leave a Comment