Franken-Daisy

You may be asking yourselves, "What was so horrible about Brent's birthday?" It wasn't that it was his birthday. It was that, well, I got a little traumatized. Let me explain.

When we adopted Daisy, my cat, from the Humane Society, they told me she had come in with a broken leg, but it was all healed and she would be fine. Great, I thought! Then I took her to the vet and they did an x-ray and this is what it showed:This is her back leg. Now, while I find x-rays quite fascinating, you may not be able to see what's going on. So in this next picture, I've drawn where the bone should go:
Yeah, no where near where it goes. Basically her leg broke completely - the thought of her walking around with a floppy leg makes me cringe - then it tried to "heal" itself, but ended up healing at a 45 degree angle to itself.

I have two things to say about this...1) Aren't bodies amazing? I mean, the fact that a bone can break completely, then basically fix itself is amazing. I often wonder how people can look at how the world works and not think that there is a God.

And 2) How could any veterinary professional look at this leg and think it was ok? I mean, her leg was about 1/2 inch shorter than the other one.

So, our vet gave us two choices.....1) leave it and more than likely she would develop horrible arthritis and have to have it amputated. Or 2) fix it now.

We decided to fix it now. So they went in, rebroke her leg and put a plate in. I thought I would get home a groggy, but mostly ok cat. Then she layed on it and pulled one of the screws out so I got this home, on Brent's birthday no less:

Yep, Franken-Daisy. Whenever she's not with me, she has to be in a kennel because they don't want her catching the post on anything. Then she chewed out two stitches, so now she has to wear the "cone of shame" (al la Up) whenever she's in the kennel. Awesome.

When I got her home, she was so excited that she made her leg start to bleed. This was just too much for me and I sort of freaked out. Luckily, I have the most amazing, calm and collected friend in the world who dropped everything, put her two boys in the car and came over to help me figure this whole thing out. (I'm talking about Courtney.) I'm embarrassed to say that she found a basketcase. But, with her help and a little time, I'm figuring this whole thing out.

Remember when I wanted to be a vet? Some of you may not remember that, but I do. I knew that I would never be able to put down an animal that wasn't sick, but I never thought that I would react like this if my animal was sick. My patriarchal blessing says that one of my gifts from my Heavenly Father is a "tender soul." I still don't 100% think that's a gift, but I'm learning to live with the gooey-ness factor that is me. I just feel so badly that she hurts and I can't do anything about it. I also feel badly that I inflicted this hurt on her.

I'm embarrassed by how upset I was, and still am at times, about this little cat. But, that's who I am, take me or leave me. I do think I could have been a good vet, if a little too compassionate.

Anyway, I want to publicly thank a couple of people. Thank you so much, Brent, for being so in control. He makes it so much easier for me to be calm. Please don't cancel your birthday. There has to be a good one sometime.

Thanks, Court, for being there for me when I needed you. I don't think I could have handled those first few hours without you.

Thanks, Ryan, for coming down on Brent's birthday and dealing with my crazy self. I can't wait until Daisy is better and Reyes can really play with her.

And thanks to you, Dear Reader, for always putting up with my craziness.

Update: I realized that I didn't say how long she had a broken leg - probably about 2 months or so, but they don't know for sure because she was a stray, and how long she'll have to have the pin - hopefully 4 weeks, but maybe 6.