MY HORRIBLE, ICKY, BORING DAY

Yesterday I had to spend the WHOLE DAY at Dr. Patricia's office, sitting around in a cage.  And the reason I had to do that was because they wanted some pee from me, and they wanted to take it out of my bladder with a needle.  I hate it when they do that because it hurts!  But they were determined to do it because Mom thinks I have a UTI, which stands for urinary tract infection, and that's something else that hurts!

The worst part was that I had already been to Dr. Patricia's office the day before yesterday, which was Monday.  And when we went there, we had to wait like an hour before we saw the doctor because there were two emergencies.  And then when we saw the doctor, it was not Dr. Patricia.  It was a different, new doctor who just started working there, and her name is Dr. Griswald.  We don't know what her first name is, so we have to call her by her last name.  I don't even know if she has a first name, but Mom says it very likely that she does.

Anyway, Mom took me to see Dr. Griswald because Mom is worried about me, as usual.  Mom has been worrying for a long time about how thin my hair is getting, and also about how I don't like to go for walks or do much of anything except sleep and eat and write blog entries.  Also I am losing muscle mass, and I can't jump up on the bed and on other high places, but I can get on the sofa just fine.  Then last week, Mom suddenly noticed that I had these sunken places above my eyes.  Gabe used to have that, and the doctor said it was because he had been taking prednisone for several years.  But I don't take prednisone.  So Mom got all worried and made an appointment for me at Dr. Patricia's office.

When Mom told Aunt Cheryl in an email about all my symptoms, Aunt Cheryl said maybe I have Cushings Disease, and she sent a link for Mom to read about Cushings.  Which is what Mom did, and sure enough, I have a whole bunch of the symptoms of Cushings.  So when Dr. Griswald was examining me, Mom said she wondered if I might have Cushings.  But Dr. Griswald said there were several things that could cause my symptoms, so she wanted to get a bunch of blood work done first, before she tested me for Cushings.  She said she was the most concerned about my flabby muscles and also about my UTI.  Then after that, Nurse Alison dragged me into the back room and took a bunch of blood out of me.  They also tried to get some urine, but I didn't have any for them just then, which is why I had to go back yesterday.

So we don't know what's going on with me yet because the blood test results won't come back until maybe Thursday.  But I just have to say that I think it would be much better for Mom to spend her money on dog treats instead of on having me get stuck with needles!

But that's enough about me, at least for the moment, because now I'm going to talk about Nicky, who also had to spend the day at the vet's office yesterday.  Nicky had a little growth kind of thing on the underside of his tail, and Dr. Patricia thought that the growth thing should be cut off.  So that's what happened to Nicky yesterday.  And now he has a pretty blue bandage, which makes me feel kind of jealous, because I wish I had a pretty bandage on my tail, except I think I would like pink better.

Anyway, yesterday evening, Nicky just kind of hung out and slept on the living room floor, with his little blue bandage on.  Of course, most evenings he sleeps on the living room floor, so the only thing that was very different was that he had a blue tail.  Saturday he has to go back and get his bandage changed.  Mom is not supposed to take it off of him because it is meant to keep poop from getting into his wound.  We don't know how many stitches he has, because we cannot look under the bandage.

Now I will just tell you one more thing, and it's very sad.  My mom's friend, Aunt Karen, had a golden retriever named Dodgie, and he died on Monday from cancer.  It was even sadder because Aunt Karen was in New York, visiting her sister, and when she left Kansas City, she didn't even know that Dodgie had cancer.  The vet thought he just had a pinched nerve in his neck, but it turned out to be a nasty tumor, and the cancer had got into other parts of his body, too, but nobody knew about it until it was too late.

So now Dodgie is at the Rainbow Bridge, with lots of other dogs and cats, including Gabe.  And maybe someday we will all get to see each other again.