She's Back, Baby

 Mable has been released back into the wild, and been roaming the house now for over a week. She is completely back to normal. She will, occasionally, have a bit of a limp -- but it's disappearing more by the day. Daisy hasn't had to give her pain meds for a few days now and she is back to playing lightly with the boys, eating/drinking/using the pan normally, and her old habits of waking Daisy at 6am and wanting to be in my office with me for "dad time" have returned. Aside from where she was shaved, you likely wouldn't know anything had happened to her. 

This is a remarkable recovery for a cat who had a broken hip a month ago and a surgery to repair it a few weeks ago. 

But, of course, can't have anything good without something else going wrong, so Hank has eye herpes.

I'm not kidding when I say that, by the way.

About two weeks ago, I was starting work one night when I noticed that it looked like Hank had something in his eye. Note, stuff like this isn't unusual -- we have six cats and there's always something mildly concerning going on with one or more of them, despite how well we take care of them -- so I took a quick look, couldn't really see that well, but I thought it was either a piece of debris from the scratch pads or one of the other cats had taken a swipe at him and had gotten his eye. I asked Daisy when she came downstairs to bring the bottle of eye wash we'd gotten for Mable when she got litter stuck in her eye when she was high as a kite and rolling around in the pan, and to see if she could flush whatever it was out or at least get a better look. I didn't have time to go find it or catch Hank again or put a flashlight in his eye or what have you, I had to work. And he seemed fine.

Daisy came downstairs, got a good look at Hank, and was immediately flooded with stress. He had a large ulcer on his eye, right in front of the pupil. It looked angry, but it didn't seem to affect him or affect his vision or activity levels. Daisy thought it could be the type of ulcer that would make him lose an eye and would require surgery. I figured it was just a scratch and would heal in a few days -- our cats have had eye scratches before and they've all been fine in a few days. Still, it looked bad enough that Daisy wanted to get Hank in to the vet the next morning, and I agreed. 

The vet had no open appointments for the rest of the week, but they told Daisy she could bring him in and drop him off, and they'd look at him between appointments and she could pick him up when they called, so very early the next morning she jumped out of bed and drove the orange lad to the vet while I slept. She said he wailed and screamed the entire time (Hank does not like change, does not like the vet, and does not like the car -- at all. He is an orange house loaf.) Then they called her, said it was eye herpes, and that she could come get him. Per Daisy he also screamed the entire way home, and it's very likely (knowing this cat) that he screamed the entire time he was at the vet's office, because he is who he is.

Anyway. Eye herpes. Basically it looks like the same pus-filled blisters you'd get on your lip or face but on the cat's eyeball. Most cats are either strongly resistant to it or basically immune to it, as almost all cats are exposed to it as kittens (especially strays and shelter cats, and Hank was both). Well, apparently Hank is not immune to it. Like human herpes, it can come out in outbreaks during times of stress -- and Hank has certainly been stressed this month, what with Mable being injured and going in and out of the cage, her wailing, etc. Hank does not like change. 

The vets said that it's not contagious -- this is a lie, actually -- it is highly contagious, but given the fact that Hank has shared the house with all of the other cats his whole life, it's likely they're not susceptible to it (or they have a strong immune resistance to it at this point). We think Maggie might have had it back when she was alive; she did not get the blisters, but at times she did have a reddened weepy eye that would last a few days and go away -- probably 3-4x a year. Charlie also has really bad allergies, and the vets say it can manifest as that too. So, eh, who knows. None of the other cats seem to be affected. 

As for Hank himself, he now gets two different types of eyedrops six times per day, and eats an L-Lysine based paste off a spoon at least once a day to help build his immune response back up. He seems fine. He hates getting the eyedrops, but he does tolerate it well, and they do seem to help him, slowly. The L-Lysine paste is maple flavored (I found that weird, but okay) and he also seems to like that just fine. Vets say it can be a few weeks before it clears up -- like, it's not going to be an overnight fix. 

Extended Warranties

 One of those things you learn in adulthood is that the most important things don't have guarantees or warranties, and the things that do...generally it's not worth it to spend the extra money on them. 

As such, we all end up sort of wingin' it, flying by the seat of our pants for a lot of things and hoping for the best. 

That's not really how I am as a person, in the event that you folks haven't picked up on that at this point. I am a meticulous planner, sometimes down to the smallest details. I budget for everything, I make to-do lists, I accomplish tasks one by one in the order that I deem them most important to least important. I try to leave nothing to chance, because in my experience anything left to chance will absolutely go wrong. And, as a control freak who needs to exhibit that control over everything possible, leaving things to chance is a near impossibility -- I'd rather control something and fail than leave it to chance and fail anyway, because at least if I'm in control I can say I tried. 

Paying off the card that has Mable's surgery on it is a $600+ per month flat rate, no ifs-ands-or-buts about it, until it's paid off. And it starts now. There's no pay as you go, there's no little $35 a month payments until it's done, nope. This is brass tacks $600+ per month we owe them for this cat getting part of her hip removed. 

Cats don't have warranties. There's no "this one's defective, so if you decide to keep it, it's on the house." Nope. $600+ per month, fuck you, pay me. She could die tomorrow, or break her other hip, or develop some other health issue. Fuck you, pay me. Doesn't matter.

Daisy and I do moderately well in our respective lines of work. I'm making more than I've ever made before, I've got a 401k and decent benefits, etc. We've been married for 11 years and right now we are at our best, financially speaking, that we've ever been. Daisy gets substantial bonuses from her job and has a pension plan, along with her own 401k. It's not like we can't afford Mable's $600+ monthly surgery payment...but again, we do have other bills, we do have other financial obligations. For example, student loans are gonna start coming due again (at least for me) in another two months or so. Groceries are expensive. Repairs and maintenance on around-the-house stuff is expensive. If the car blows a major part, it's expensive. Everything is expensive. This is the world we live in now, where just trying to survive will send you into the poorhouse. 

I've stopped caring about most ancillary shit anymore. The news doesn't interest me as it's always bad (it will continue to be bad as long as Trump is in office and/or otherwise sucking air). I've stopped caring about most new media, music, television, etc. My focus has now turned to my wife, my family, and the cats more than anything else. All of the other things are unimportant. Bills are being paid? Cool, all other focus just goes to living our lives. 

I got a new Fitbit watch yesterday. I haven't opened the package yet. My old one is "aging out," so to speak -- it's a few years old now and the battery life isn't what it used to be, and I've wanted an upgrade for some time. The thought of messing with it to set it up right now is tiring, so I haven't bothered yet.

I need a new computer, too. Mind you, this one is still fine, but I'd like to get one that's faster and isn't 5-6 years old (this one is refurbished and is approaching six years since I bought it; I'm sure it's actually a few years older than its purchase year). I've been looking at some options, none of which are wildly cheap or anything like that, but I'd like to be able to pull the trigger in the next several weeks. Problem with that is that I'd need to budget for it and would need to do some more light research on what my needs are. I'm not doing any heavy gaming on this thing or constantly streaming 24 hours a day, but I do occasionally rip a wallet full of CDs to my music collection, and I do need something that's fast and reliable -- and hopefully something that'll last until I'm in my 50s without spectacularly failing or being too old to use without heavy modifications. It would also be nice to have something I can unhook, throw into a suitcase, and run with if we need to flee the country -- you may laugh but yeah, this thought has crossed my mind a number of times as of late.

It has been well over a month now since we've volunteered at the shelter, and we're not going to get the chance to do so for a few more weeks at least. Next weekend is Daisy's birthday weekend, and we have plans for that. The following weekends we also have various things to do -- July 4th weekend, then Superman releases on July 11th (we'll be seeing it as soon as possible after that date) plus Fantastic Four releases shortly after that and we'll be seeing that as soon as possible after release, etc. The memorial/celebration-of-life service for Daisy's friend who died recently is on July 12, Daisy's parents are going to be in Canada sometime in July so we will once more be taking care of the cats for them while they're gone, we have a scheduled service to our AC and ducts system on July 16, and then in August we'll be visiting my parents in NC. In addition to all of this we have numerous summer appointments to get the cats in for their shots, do Mable's checkups and check-ins, I told Daisy we really, really need to get new tires on her car at some point, we need to have a technician come out and work on our oven because it's being an asshole, etc. We have a pretty full summer ahead of us is what I'm saying. There's something to do nearly every day, and when there's not we're both still working 40 hours a week (or more, in Daisy's case, as she gets some overtime when she wants it) and trying to dodge severe weather, as we're right in the middle of the season for that. 

No time to really care about or be bothered by ancillary stuff, is what I'm saying. We're just trying to survive and live our lives. 

Add to this that work for me has been very busy for the past several weeks -- I haven't had a single lunch hour in over two weeks, I'm almost constantly understaffed, I'm doing the jobs of at least three people every night I'm on shift -- and have to get on a longform video call every morning at the time I should be getting off work with client leadership to essentially justify all of the work that was done in the ten hours leading up to said call. I'm worn down, powered by coffee, Costco protein bars, and energy drinks, and am just trying to make it through. When I sleep it's for short intervals -- 4-6 hours at most -- and it's always punctuated by Mable crying loudly to be let out of her cage because she hates it. 

I am 95% packed for our trip to North Carolina, which we don't even leave on for another two months. The last 5% is ancillary stuff, little things, or items I'll be using up until the day I leave that will be the last things I pack. I have a to-do list and it's full of everything I need or can think of that we would need to take with us down there. Two months of planning and packing for a five day long trip. PTO is in at work for both of us, flights and rental car all booked and ready, and still two months to go. It's a five-day trip I look more forward to by the day with every night of prolonged hell I have to endure at work.

Again, and I've said this before -- don't get me wrong, I like my job. I am good at it, I like the people I work with -- and I am very well-respected by all of my coworkers/peers and employees. But I'd really rather not be forced to do three people's jobs because of staffing issues, and I'd really like to have some lunch hours again at some point. It's tiring. It wears me down. It reminds me of the old horrible days when I first started on overnights a decade ago, where everything was just triage and catch-as-catch-can. I'm not in my thirties anymore; I don't have the boundless energy I once had to handle every single thing that comes across my desk. More than that -- I no longer have the patience or zen-like calm I once had for it.

Mable is fine, by the way. I know I've mentioned her a few times above without going into detail, but she's okay. We're nearing the time where we'd release her freely into the house again to slowly resume her normal life. She's had diarrhea as a side effect of her antibiotics, so the doctors told us to discontinue those. As soon as she's able to have regular normal bowel movements we're going to let her out and dismantle the cage. Completely full, pain-free recovery could take six months, so she'll likely need to be on the gabapentin for some time moving forward...but otherwise? She's the same old Mable we've always known, just a little limpy here and there and shaved in a few odd places. 

I started designing this year's Christmas card this weekend. It's nowhere near complete; generally we take a good number of photos of ourselves while we're on vacation and choose one of the best ones to put on the front of the card. Well, we're not doing any of our trips this year until August and October, so once I get photos of us I'll be able to finish it. I've also chosen a design that lets me do a "family newsletter" sort of paragraph on the back of it, which I've not done before...and we need much more of the year to pass before I can fill out that paragraph with some words. 

A Tiring List, Part I

 With everything going on with Mable, I haven't had the chance really to do a rundown of the other things happening in our lives -- we've both been exhausted mentally, physically, and (likely) spiritually too. So, over the course of the next few entries (eh, give or take) I'm going to do just that -- provide a rundown of some things that are happening behind the scenes of Ms. Shit Herself.

1. We have not volunteered in a month. Look, this hasn't really been my choice, though I've had a hand in supporting that decision -- again, we've been exhausted. The last day we volunteered at the shelter was a week before Memorial Day. Memorial Day weekend followed and we had plans with the parents, the weekend after that was our wedding anniversary, and the weekend after that Daisy was granted the ability to work overtime for a good bit of extra money, and jumped on the opportunity. After all, we have a cat hip surgery to pay for.
   
   
2. Gary's DNA results are....interesting. I'll let the screencap below speak for itself:
   
   
   
   
   I never would have guessed some of the stranger breeds, and I was very wrong about the Norwegian Forest Cat (0%), which surprised me. But, at 25.24%, Gary has the most Maine Coon DNA of any cat in the house. Even Empress, who looks more like a Maine Coon (really, she looks like a shaggy mountain lion) than any other cat we own. 
   
   
   
3. I am back on my 4x10 schedule at work. With the addition of my colleague/right-hand-woman finally being brought over and installed on the overnight team for the latter half of the week, I am now free to work my 4x10 Sun-Weds schedule again permanently as we once again have full coverage. That schedule can, at times, be brutal -- but it is almost always worth it for being able to have Thurs/Fri/Sat off every week. If I ever switched it again, I'd try to migrate it to Mon-Thurs so I could have Sunday nights off too.
   
   
4. We have booked this year's trip to North Carolina. We'll be going in August to coincide with my parents' birthdays. It's all bought and paid for, including the rental car. The trip will be five days total -- one travel day there, three days/nights, one travel day home. As soon as I can place the PTO for it into my work's new system for that (it's complicated) I will do so. I have already given the heads up to my team and my leadership, though I am sure I will need to remind them multiple times between now and then. Because I am the person I am, I have already completed about 90% of the packing and preparations for this trip. I'm sure I'll cover this more once we get closer to it as well.
   
   
5. I have been upgrading my music collection in the background, including digital copies of Daisy's mother's entire music collection. Daisy herself also got me the 50th Anniversary Edition of George Harrison's "All Things Must Pass" for our anniversary and I've purchased collections of 80s rock and metal, Ghost's new album "Skeleta," The Tragically Hip's greatest hits, and the greatest hits collection of Huey Lewis and The News. I have a lot of new music to listen to and add to my archives, which is rapidly approaching 5,000 albums or so at this juncture. 
   
   
6. Trulicity continues to fuck with me. Or at least I think that's what it is. I have either been nauseous, have had terrible bouts of diarrhea that last for 12+ hours off and on, or both over the course of the past several days. There could be any number of causes, but I will tell you that I don't generally feel like this consistently until I've been on the Trulicity again for a few weeks...which I now have been, since my insurance has kicked in at the new job and I can once more get it.
   
   
7. I have continued to blacken my hair and I have just purchased, tonight, two of the strongest, deepest black hair dyes commercially available on the market. I do occasionally like the bit of lighter color in it shining through, the blue or the purple, but while I do like those colors I am drawn far more to the dark black. And the problem with black dye is that it fades out quickly, more than any other color, with each wash -- letting the blue or the purple show through a little more than I would like in direct sunlight. So, once or twice a week I've been re-upping the black. Well, with the new dye I'm about to use, I shouldn't have to worry about that too much anymore. It is permanent and should last for 10+ weeks before fading. I'm going to wait to use it for a few weeks and then drop it on my head so that it still remains radiant when visiting my parents this summer (read: when we'll likely be taking a bunch of pictures together, at least one of which we'll use on this year's Christmas card). 
   
   
8. We spent $347 at Costco last night. We have a Costco problem that deepens more and more with every visit to that store. We didn't even get the vast majority of things we wanted -- we got essentials and a few extra things (like new beach towels) to get us by for the next month or two, honestly. I do love Costco, and it is wonderful for certain things, but the amount of money one can spend there is downright criminal. Were I still eating flesh, for example, I could've spent that amount of money on the beef jerky aisle alone. That is dangerous. 
   
   
9. A slight cat update: Mable is doing well. She spent about 40 minutes in my room tonight, and she is at about 85% of her normal self. She still has a slight limp when she walks, and it appears she alternates between being constipated and having diarrhea (welcome to my world, my child), but tonight all she wanted was to be in here by my side, eating treats and lounging on the floor with her cone off. The cone should be able to come off within the next few days, hopefully, and judging on her activity levels and want to return to routine, I'm guessing she'll be back to her old self in another week or so, give or take. She's a trooper; she is still in pain -- and that is very evident -- when her gabapentin wears off, but she is very much over this shit and wants to be out of the cage now as much as possible. This is good for her because, hey, physical therapy and active cats heal faster and all that, but she's not completely there yet -- we still need to sequester her a bit to heal up more. 
   
   
10. Other cats' updates: Charlie seems to have gotten to a point where he's almost stopped growing, which is really curious because he was on track to be one of the biggest cats in the household, comparable to Empress. He turned six months old yesterday. He is the sweetest, most loving boy cat I've ever seen other than Pete, and I am sort of hoping a growth spurt kicks in soon, otherwise Gary will be bigger than him soon enough because he's still pretty small. Gary's stomach issues have basically subsided, and he's been offered a limited amount of treats (here and there, anyway) that he scarfs down like a food vacuum. He has grown a lot since we got him and has integrated into the house pretty well. My guess now is that he's somewhere around 5-6 pounds and is absolutely going to end up being as big as Emmy if he keeps growing like that. He is almost five months old right now, just shortly behind Charlie (they're approximately five weeks apart in age). Empress the fish harasser and Hank the orange lad remain much the same; Emmy I am sure is still going to grow and gain some more weight as she does; Hank I think is basically done growing now that he's hit age two and is the second-oldest cat in the house. Pete has continued to slow with age, but he remains the same old man he always was -- he seems to be in good health, he's still pretty active in moving about the house, and he is still working to spend every second he can with us when we're willing to give him love and attention. He sleeps with us every day/night, he still wants to be held and wants his cuddle time, and he still loves his treats and wet food. This is good because, of course, he really is on borrowed time at this point -- being an eighteen-year-old cat, his days are numbered and he could go at any time. Most of the time though, he is very content to just exist.
    
    
11. Canada plans have not changed. We have RSVP'd to Daisy's cousin's wedding for October and we expect to be up there for around 8-10 days. We have not yet booked the flights because of prices wildly fluctuating back and forth, and because Daisy needs to lock down some logistics both with her job and her mother. It's also going to be tight for my own job and for the PTO required -- i.e. I likely will not get any more time off whatsoever after the Canada trip for the rest of the year. That doesn't really bother me that much though -- my birthday is on a Saturday this year, Christmas and New Years and Thanksgiving are all Thursdays -- all days I wouldn't work anyway as long as I keep my same 4x10. 

The Hips Don't Lie, Part IV: Ms. Shit Herself

 Mable is...Mable. She's recovering pretty well, give or take. She's moving around and can actually get around pretty well -- still has a bit of a limp (I'm sure her hip is still a little sore/tender) but is walking around on that leg, has no problems jumping up or down off things, etc. 

Mind you, she shouldn't be jumping up or down off anything, or going up and down the stairs (as she has done when she has escaped the cage once or twice)...but the vets said active cats heal faster, and as it doesn't seem to be bothering her, we're counting it as part of her "physical therapy."

She still hates the cone, and she tears it off at least 3-4 times a day. Each time we reattach it. But she's eating and drinking fairly normally, and her sleep cycles seem to be about the same, so I'm chalking those up as wins.

However, it's not all completely good, only most. For one, she has diarrhea -- we don't know if it's the meds she's on or what, but likely. She had uncontrollable diarrhea a few times last night -- uncontrollable as in, she was shitting herself in her cat bed. This led Daisy to dub her "Ms. Shit Herself." She luckily has not had this problem today.

She also has a really irritated...I don't know how to say this...crotchal region. Basically, the entire area around the holes. They shaved her really closely down there, may have nicked her skin, etc. But she looks really sore and irritated. Daisy reached out to the vets and they suggested diaper rash ointment, which seems to be working really well for her thus far.

The entire process thus far has been exhausting. Daisy's barely been sleeping at night because of her need to care for Mable, and I can't help in the night because I am absolutely locked to my desk at work -- work has been absolutely terrible the past two weeks or so, so bad that most of the time I can't even get away long enough to pee or get something to drink. I think I only got two lunch hours this entire week, and the last two days I've been there hours late in the morning because my help was necessary. So, not only does Daisy work all day until right before I start work, but half the night she's up taking care of the cat.

But surely, you may say, you can help during the day when she's working right? 

I can, yes, but Mable sleeps most of the day -- as do I. Ms. Shit Herself doesn't tend to start her bullshit until around 1am, when I've already been working for three hours and Daisy has been off work for four hours and is trying to go to bed. 

Charlie and Hank are really upset with Mable most of the time now, and we don't know why -- Hank especially will growl at her, and Charlie will hiss. It's possible she smells differently because of the procedure or the meds she's on, or they're just scared and confused because she's in this cage upstairs in the bedroom with a giant cone on her head -- we don't know, honestly. Gary has taken it in stride; he has spent hours sleeping next to the cage or behind it, like her little guardian. Emmy hasn't really paid attention to the situation at all, and Pete couldn't care less whether she's in the bedroom or not, in a cage or not, etc. 

She's only got a few more days of the meds and about another week and a half or so of being in the cage and needing to wear the cone before we can start letting her out for much longer stretches of time and allowing her to try to get back to some semblance of a normal life. But, she seems to be recovering really well thus far. I know we still have a few follow up appointments, I know we have a bit of recovery time still, but I'm optimistic. I have to be. 

The Hips Don't Lie, Part III: Recovery

 Mable went in for surgery this morning around 10am and was done by a little after noon or so. She is recovering well, and the surgical staff remarked how sweet and lovey she is. Yep, that's our Mable. 

After a thorough examination and a long discussion with the surgical team this morning, we decided to go ahead with the FHO -- femoral head removal -- essentially removing the head of the hip. The benefits of this far outweighed the other options. For one, she will no longer be in pain there, at all -- the broken part was removed. For two, she gets a quick 2-3 week recovery time before they encourage her to get out, start running and jumping and playing as per the usual, so that it doesn't heal tightly or stiffly. Until then she needs to remain in the cage to heal up a bit. I don't know whether she'll have to wear a cone or not, but I do know she has an incision that needs to heal on her lower inner thigh (where they went in) and will need to be on antibiotics for a bit.

The downsides? Well...she may have a slightly different gait to her walk for the rest of her life. I think that's...fine, really. I mean, if that's the only real side effect? Cool, she'll be fine, she's a goofball anyway so having a weird walk won't change that. And the surgeons said it may be noticeable and it may not.

The surgeons also called Daisy this afternoon to tell her that Mable's other hip isn't fully grown-in yet either, and that's somewhat unusual for a cat of her age -- but Maine Coons (and Mable is 24% Maine Coon and looks it) take a lot longer to grow and continue to grow until ages 2-5 even, so that is actually sort of normal for her. I know for a fact that Mable isn't done growing, nor is Empress -- and Empress is already gigantic. I think they're both going to be monsters. And Gary has more Maine Coon in him than either of the girls. We'll get to that soon enough. 

Anyway, onward....

The price of the surgery was another downside too, of course. Baseline price for these specialists (remember, they're "the best") to do the surgery was $2800 or so, give or take. Incidentals could raise that to $3400 or so total -- as in, like if they had complications or needed to give her extra meds or something along those lines. They told us to expect the higher end more than the lower end when everything is all said and done, but they also said that before we even had her under the knife this morning. Because of this, Daisy got a special pet-care-only credit card that has a $4k limit on that and no interest for six months, and that's how we paid for it. We'll pay it off before the interest kicks in anyhow, so at the very least it won't ding us too badly. We don't know the final total and won't until Daisy picks Mable up in the morning tomorrow. Yes, she's staying overnight at the surgery center for some recovery and observation. 

So yeah, that's pretty much it at the moment. I'm sure she'll have some downtime and recovery time and will be a little wobbly from the drugs (they're going to give her another opiate shot), but all indications are that she'll be perfectly fine. 

That's my girl. 

So she will come home tomorrow and we'll watch over her, will keep her in her cage, and I'm sure the boys will be her guardians as they have been for the past few days. Gary and Charlie have kept watch over her like prison guards most of the time, but not like...in a vindictive or cruel way or anything. It's more like they don't know what's going on or why she's in there and they want to make sure she's okay and protected.

The others seem unaffected. I don't think Emmy or Hank notice she's gone, and Pete is old and tired anyway. He appreciates cuddle time with Mable but honestly, these days he's just as likely to be cuddled by any of the others (except for Hank). 

The Hips Don't Lie, Part II: Having None of This Shit

 The cage arrived for Mable on Friday, shortly before our call with not only our vet, but with the pet orthopedic specialist. 

Mable does not necessarily mind the cage, but it does seem as if she doesn't fully understand why she's in it. She still prefers to lounge/sleep in the litter pan most of the time, despite the fact that we got a super-soft cat bed for her specifically for the cage, and a raised food bowl so she can legit eat out of it without having to leave said cat bed. 

Believe me, she is well kept. She has access to wet food and fresh water, a freshly-cleaned pan, and a bowl of treats at all times. The bed for her is very comfortable and she does like it, but it might be a bit too warm for her at times and that may be why she prefers to lounge in the litterbox. That could also be a stress thing too, from what our vet said.

Speaking of which...

Sigh.

Okay, so, there are a number of variables at play. None of them are really great options. So I'm going to make a numbered list here of new information we found out between two calls and a few emails:

1. Mable's fracture is indeed a minor one, and it is like a hairline fracture for a cat.
2. It isn't a separation of the bones, but is a fracture "in place" so to speak.
3. Our (very competent) vet can and has done the surgery she may or may not need, called a FHO procedure, in his office before.
4. It is not putting a pin in the hip to stabilize it -- it is full removal of the femoral head and allowing cartilage and scar tissue to restore movement and function in the healing process. I guess it also involves lasers. 
5. However, he is not the best at it and has not done it in a long time. He suggested the cat orthopedic specialist place and noted that if he were in the same situation, he would take his animals there to have them do it, since they're the best.
6. Cost to have it done at our vet's office, if necessary: $1843 to $2248. 
7. The orthopedic specialists' office requires a pre-screening thorough exam, likely with new x-rays done, as part of their consult. The consult itself ranges from $200-250 bare minimum.
8. The orthopedic specialists were shocked that we hadn't already brought her in. 
9. Cost to have it done by "the best" orthopedic specialists: $3500 to $4500. 
10. Cost to have it done by a no-frills vet hospital down the street from us: about $900. 
11. Our vet is/was out of the office for the weekend, so we left a query with their front desk as to find out what he thinks about the no-frills place.
12. After all of this, all of it, it is very possible she will not need a surgery at all and will just heal up from it naturally.

Now, mind you, we don't know. That is a lot of money to spend on a surgery for a cat. News flash, we may both have good jobs but we're not liquid enough to just drop the equivalent cost of a decent used car and not blink. It's also not a payment plan thing -- these places expect every dollar up front, same day, no negotiations. The no-frills place very likely has a waiting list a mile long as we read reviews from people who drove into Omaha from hours away to save the money on a procedure. That wouldn't work if our consult with the specialists says something like oh no, you should've had her in here day-of, she needs this NOW or something along those lines -- plus if she does need the surgery and we'd be waiting on it, she would begin healing on her own in the waiting time, likely incorrectly.

Daisy consulted her divining crystal (yeah, that's definitely a sentence I just typed) multiple times, and it told her multiple times that Mable does not need the surgery. 

I guess we'll find out at 8am sharp, when we have the consult appointment with the specialist people.

I am of multiple minds about all of this. I don't want to see my little girl suffer, of course. If it's something they review and say she can heal from on her own in 6-8 weeks and to keep her sequestered and unable to run or jump until that point, cool, then I guess that's what it is and we save a few thousand dollars on handling it. But I do think that would be risky, and I don't know that she wouldn't injure herself again shortly after healing, maybe even worse the next time around, to where that surgery would become absolutely necessary.

Also, I understand these surgery people are "the best," but what I gathered on the phone call told me that they were absolutely trying to wring us dry, nickel-and-dime us on everything in order to maximize their own profits and add to their Lamborghini-buying funds. And honestly, that really, really rubs me the wrong way. I'm sure they do a fine job, but do they need to charge double what our vet would charge, or 3-4x what the no-frills place would charge for the same procedure? I am guessing not. I am strongly guessing not. 

So what are we going to do?

Well, we have the consult with them in the morning at 8am. It's likely going to be pretty in-depth. There will very likely be more x-rays. There will very likely be big talk of trying to sell us on paying $4k for a surgery whether or not she actually really needs it. They do this shit every day. They're likely going to try to upsell us on everything.

But. They're also supposed to be the best. And that puts us in a very dangerous situation, because if our own vet trusts them, and they say she's in a critical spot right now and needs the surgery immediately...I have to be inclined to believe them, even if they're trying to blow smoke up our asses.

I have a credit card I paid off two years ago and haven't used since. It has a very high limit. I'm not necessarily concerned about that. What I'm concerned about is being played, and I am concerned about Mable's pain levels and healing prognosis. Fuck the money. I know that sounds weird to say, but I can always pay down a credit card. We make a decent living and it's not the end of the world.

"What if they say yes, she needs this, she needs this surgery now -- are we just going to do it?" I asked Daisy. It was sort of a rhetorical question, because my answer is and always was "yes, just do it, save my child."

"I'm going to need a minute," Daisy said. "If she truly needs it do we want to shop around?"

"I mean, these guys are supposed to be the best, right? Like, I'm trying to be budget-conscious but at the same time I do want the best care for our little girl, and I will always be paranoid if we're like 'nah fam, we'll pass today' and try to get our vet or the no-frills place to do it to save a few bucks...the worst case scenario in my mind is that if it's not done by the best surgeons to do it, what if it happens again in the future? Same hip or the other one? Would we always be second-guessing or questioning ourselves on whether we should have spent the money with 'the best' people the first time?"

Actually, and I told Daisy as an aside last night -- the real worst-case scenario is that they put her under for the surgery and she doesn't wake up and dies there on the operating table, and we just paid the surgeons a non-refundable $4k to essentially accidentally kill our cat. Hey man, freak accidents happen, and not all animals respond as expected to anesthesia -- our family dog growing up died on the operating procedure at one point and they had to fight to get her back, for example.

Also, the specialists have a contingency for that -- it's an extra $500 if your pet crashes and they have to do CPR on them to bring them back, whether they're successful or not. It's in the contract paperwork we had to fill out, because of course it is. 

"Do you want me to check the box for that?" Daisy asked me. 

"Yes, of course," I said. "Cat's not even a year and a half old, bring her back to me so she can live a good long life."

I paused for a moment before saying "I mean, if it were Pete, he's 18, like...I wouldn't feel the same way."

Daisy also paused for a moment. "Yeah, I actually agree with you on that," she finally said. 

All of this is a big shit sandwich, and we all have to take a bite -- that's what I'm trying to relay here overall.