To Acquire Cat - Or Not To Acquire Cat

An acquaintance of mine wants me to assume responsibility for a cat she’s recently taken in… It’s just possible that I’m way too busy to add another thing to my life – namely – a cat with feline leukemia. This is not to say I won’t kitty sit for the poor feline while her foster feline mom is on vacation.

The cat was to arrive last night. I had to postpone. My sister called. Jason (my nephew – see “Hardcore”for more details) had to go into the hospital overnight for an early morning bronchoscopy. (No idea if I spelled that right – but to make a long word understandable, the doctors need to clean out his lungs.) I agreed to stay with him.

I’m still a little upset. At 2 AM, they decided to wake him from deep slumber to insert an IV. Nurse I looked for veins for almost an hour. It went like this – tourniquet goes on lower left arm, just above wrist. She uses this powerful light to hold up to his little 5-year old arm to see the outline of the veins (remember when we stuck flashlights into our mouths at campfires? Our cheeks glowed? The technology is exactly the same. The light glowed - and the veins showed up as dark purple creeks flowing up and down Jay’s arm)

The only trouble is – Jason’s veins are tiny, tiny, tiny.

Light off, tourniquet off. Re-tie tourniquet to left leg, below knee. Search left ankle for veins… Move tourniquet down. Add light, feel around foot for deep vein. No dice.

Right arm. Tourniquet. Found what may be a good one, despite my request to keep the IV on his non-dominant arm.

Meanwhile, Jason, fully understanding what is about to take place, is voicing all the protest his tired little body can muster. “Owie! I want Mommy!” Then he’d fall asleep until the tourniquet was retied. This breaks my heart.

Ok. So the first needle prick is unsuccessful. Instant bruise. We’re all unhappy. Repeat process until a vein is suspected in his left foot. No dice. I’m annoyed because all the nurses can say is “Sometimes we don’t get them in right away…” All Jason can say is “Owie, I want Mommy.”

I was relieved when the three nurses decided to get more experienced help. A MedEvac guy named Chris comes and begins the search for veins again. He managed to find an acceptable one in Jay’s right arm. At least it wasn’t in his hand. I hate it when Jay can’t use his hand due to IV.

At first, he didn’t believe he got the needle where it should be, but he was able to draw a blood sample, and flood the vein with saline – which is, apparently, the sure sign of a successful stick. Jason was exhausted.

As Chris left, and my stomach churned, I told Jay he was very, very brave. He asked me if he could watch Shreck. (we both love Shreck). Until he calmed down, we passed the time by quoting movie lines and singing “Hey now, you’re a rock star…” I may have fallen asleep before he did…

I wonder what the cat was up to last night.