This Day Three Years Ago

 So this day three years ago Nix was struggling down the stairs with me because I was fairly unresponsive up on the bed. When we got to the vets they couldn’t get my temperature down so Nix had to drive me to the hospital in Brighton so I could stay overnight. They knew my kidneys weren’t right and my temperature was very high so they tried lots of things which didn’t work. 


After a week at the Brighton hospital Nix had to come and get me and drive me to North Downs Specialist Referrals.  They said I should have to stay in for more tests so Nix booked a room in the local pub. After a couple of days they gave Nix three options. They could fit a stent, they could do a bypass or they could completely remove the kidney. They said my other kidney would only sustain me for six months so that was out. Nix and the surgeon decided on a stent but the surgeon called midway and said that the mass they’d seen was infection and if he cleaned that up everything might work again. It only lasted a day and I was sick again. So I had a second operation to put in the stent. They then couldn’t get the stent in as my ureter was too twisted and that’s when they decided to do the bypass. They discovered at the same time I’d had lots of stones, the worst one was in my ureter and it was shunting up and down.




Nix was allowed to see me the day after the second operation and she was amazed that I walked out to meet her. We sat in the hospital garden for a while. Nix kept crying because of my wound but I was okay, it didn’t hurt. Nix brought me a meerkat which she’d kept under her arm so it smelled of her…I still have it, I’ve never tried to rip it up. After a few more days Nix was allowed to take me home. The vet put me in the back of the car and we set off. There were terrible traffic jams apparently and it was very hot and it took us three hours to get home. Nix couldn’t see me from the driver’s seat so she kept jumping out of the car to check I was okay. I don’t really remember much about that but I remember getting home…I went straight to sleep. 



Nix is going to post a photo of the X-ray of my bypass, it’s called a subcutaneous ureteral bypass. For the first year I had to have three day flushes four times a year. That meant every morning and every evening for three days I had to have my bypass flushed through. They use a big needle that goes into the ‘port’ but I don’t feel anything. I just lie there, it’s quite relaxing really because the vet nurses cuddle and kiss me. I’m eleven now and everyone we meet thinks I’m a puppy 🙂



Comments

  1. JennyJuly 24, 2021 at 3:24 PM

    Fripp, you're a miracle boy...coming through all that! Your mum is a wonder too ☺️

    ReplyDelete

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