living and breathing

about 1030am today i got a call from min. she said, "pearl's dying! get home as fast as you can so we can go to the vet!"

in case you were wondering, that's a great way to start a phone call.

normally it takes me 15-20 minutes to get home. today i made it home in 10. i would say that i, um, bended some laws, but i was still safe.

right before i got home, min called to see if i was close. yes. so she told me she'd be waiting on the sidewalk with pearl so we could just go to the vet. i pulled up and min has pearl, a limp little lump, wrapped in a towel. they get in the car and she tells me: pearl ate some of her (min's) pain medicine.

she'd already called the vet so they knew we were en route. they're only a few miles down the road so we got there pretty quick. they rushed her to the back and got her started on all those lovely medicines that make you vomit, plus monitoring her vitals.

while we waited for the doctor to come in, she told me more about what happened at the house. how pearl sneakily got into the medicine, the subsequent roster of symptoms particular to a dog dying (which she has seen many times, unfortunately, since she used to work at the SPCA), and her frantic dash about the house trying to get help for pearl and get ready to leave (was still in her PJ's).

a few minutes later, the doctor came to us and told us that they'd started the meds, etc. that her system was naturally a little depressed but they would be keeping a close watch on her and try to clear the BAD medicine from her body. learned that there is a medicine for counteracting the effect of opiates! interesting.

anyway, he said to call back about 130 to check her status, presuming they hadn't needed to call us first with a change for the worse. but when min called - yay! - she was doing LOTS better. heart rate up, she was more alert, and it seemed like she'd be able to go home tonight. yay! and apparently she'd gotten everything out of her system at home. so, icky for min to clean up, but glad it got out so fast, really. probably kept pearl from getting as sick as she could have.

i suppose i'm jinxing things by saying pearl's fine when she's not actually home yet, but...i'm just so happy she's alright. she is SO our little baby. our little pearl. i can't really deal with thinking about her dying, so i'm glad reality swerved away from that possibility relatively quickly. :-p got enough going on already, anyway.

min's surgery is scheduled. for reals, for trues. for may 31st and i'll write more about it later. not enough time or energy today.