Yes, it’s a picture of kitty, again, but don’t worry. These posts will not start being about her. This one however is and about how we should learn to trust and listen to our gut instinct.
On Wednesday I wrote about how Nala all of a sudden couldn’t walk earlier that morning and how I took her to the vet to get her checked up. I felt a little bit silly and neurotic still worrying about her after the vet had given her the all clear. That was until late on Thursday evening.
I was getting ready to go to bed when I heard that sound again. The sound that sounded like Nala was playing but which had turned out to be her leg hitting the floor when she wasn’t able to walk. It was that again. This time D was home and got to see what I’d seen the day before. Only this time it was worse. Both of kitty’s legs where playing up and she was doing funny things with her front paws towards her left hand side of the face, which was also playing up, as she was desperately trying to climb up on one of the chairs. Of course, with her back legs not working she couldn’t. Just as last time, what we were now sure of was not a cramp but some form of seizure lasted for about 1-2 minutes after which Nala was visible distressed and unsure of what was going on. It didn’t look good at all and the fear that something was seriously wrong with her kicked in.
We called the emergency vet who explained to us that it could be a range of things. Heart or trombosis related, tumor or a serious infection that was causing some form of neurological problems. Or epilepsi though it didn’t seem likely. She needed a proper check but nothing the emergency vet really could do so we had to wait until first thing Friday morning to take her in. My plan of a good night’s sleep went out the window and for ages as Nala, just as normal had followed me to the bedroom, I lay looking at her instead of falling asleep.
Deep down when the first episode happened I’d known that it wasn’t a cramp. But it’s easy to feel overly worried, and I guess neurotic, so I tried to tell myself that of course the vet was right. Of course it wasn’t anything more serious than her knee playing up or a cramp. However, keeping our gut instinct quiet is hard, if not sometimes impossible. I worried about Nala on Wednesday afternoon when she was home alone and half ran from the tube to our flat, sighing with relief when she came and met me by the door. The gut instinct on Thursday told us that something was seriously wrong with kitty and this time the vet responded accordingly. They took her in for observation, ran a number of tests and at 5.30, when we got to pick her up, we were told that her white blood cell count was through the roof, either indicating a serious infection or worse, possibly leukeamia. I’ve been told the same as my white blood cell count generally is too high but so far (knock on wood) has nothing to do with leukemia, so I knew what the vet would say as soon as she mentioned “high white blood cell count”. Nala is now on antibiotics and some other medication to prevent any more seizures. As for the leukeamia tests, we’re getting them back in a week or so. Although slightly more sleepy, Nala is her normal self following me around and currently lying on top of the add on unit of the desk sleeping. My gut feeling is calm and I trust that the leukeamia test will come back negative. But once again I’ve been given a remind to trust my gut feeling when it clearly and strongly tells me that something isn’t right. And next time I’ll listen straight away. As for now I’m glad we were home when the second seizure happened so that we could take her to the vet and give her medication to treat what is hopefully just a serious infection.
Tomorrow – Day 302 | Week 43 summary
Image: Kitty with her shaved neck after the vet visit
