Click here to read PU Surgery Stinks – Part I

I arrived at the animal hospital, the doctor examined him and said he needed the operation now.

They allowed me to give him a hug and kiss before he was prepped for surgery.

I was in tears before I left the examination room.  I signed whatever paperwork they needed and was told they’d call me as soon as he was out of surgery.

I felt, not sure what I felt. Weird maybe. Like what just happened? I drove in with a cat but I didn’t leave with a cat. I tried to go about my day as normal as possible, but I forgot to tell my face that.

Naturally, I didn’t want to talk about it because I’d start crying again, but people were concerned. I managed to get it out all in one sentence.

Hours passed. No phone call, no smoke signals and no text messages about my boy.

I called the hospital and they said he was out of surgery.

Silence.

I wanted to be mad, scream and yell, but that’s not my personality.

It’s like when your mechanic says, “We’ll call you when your car is done.” Weeks go by (yeah I’m exaggerating) and no one calls so you call them and they say, “Oh your car was ready at 12:30.”

Silence.

“What!?! How come no one called me?”

“Well, he was out of surgery but was still under anesthesia.”

That’s fine, but I wanted to know the surgery went well. Maybe they wanted to be sure he’d wake up, but whatever the case, I finally got a phone call that his surgery went well and Caleb was awake. Mad as ever, but awake.

It was the first time I smiled all day.  I made arrangements to see him the next day and drop off food for him.

The following day, closer to the close of business, I drove to the Cat Hospital but was running late.

I called to let them know I’d be there and not to close or else there’d be a woman crawling through one of their windows to see her cat.  They promised they’d wait for me and would let me in.

I arrived at the hospital and was so excited to see Caleb. I’m positive he was excited to see me as well because when the technician opened the door to his cage, Caleb hissed and moved to the back, but when he saw and heard me, he came forward and head-butted my hand.

He looked horrible.  His hair was shaved in several places, his paw was still wrapped with a bandage where the IV was inserted, he had a cone around his neck and was bloody from the surgery.

Did I mention he smelled like 5-day old urine?

I asked about his current pain level, when he could come home and whatever else I could think of.  I’m not sure why doctors say “discomfort” and patient say “pain” but I was told he had discomfort. A technician would be there for the night to give him his discomfort meds every few hours and they would call me later to let me know how he was doing.

I learned he would have to stay in the hospital for a week. An entire week.  I thought, at best, two days according to Sir Google, but no, seven whole days. I was sure the technician was mistaken but decided to cooperate with his recovery even if I didn’t like it. Maybe he would be home sooner.

I asked if he could be cleaned up because his cone had blood stains on it, not to mention he was bloody and smelled.

I know he just had surgery, but it wasn’t easy looking at him this way.  I wanted to do something to make him….to make me feel better.

I thought if he looked better, I would feel better. No deal.  His cone was cleaned, but that’s it.

I left my boy behind, drove home and tried not to worry.

Later that night, I received a phone call from one of the technicians with an update on his condition. He was doing fine; he urinated with no problem but wasn’t eating much. He has to be on special food for the rest of his life.  I gave the technician a tip on how to get him started eating and it worked.

Do I know my boy or what?

Stay tuned because I will be wrapping up the end of this story in the next post.