Well, I can now add successfully administer a catheter to my resume. We took Paolo into the vet on Tuesday because I wasn’t able to manually express his bladder. The vet put a catheter in Paolo and showed me how to maintain it at home. It actually makes life a little easier for me now that the urine soaked mountain of laundry is eliminated. He was supposed to wear this lampshade around the clock so he wouldn't pull out the catheter but he ate the damn thing right off his head while I was at work. I'm not too worried about him getting to his catheter because I honestly think he's too chubby to to reach his penis. Poor thing!
Also, while we were at the vet the doctor put a clamp on Paolo’s tail and Paolo yelped which means he felt it! The vet didn’t want to get our hopes up too high but he did say that’s a very good sign and a step in the right direction. I also keep having very vivid dreams of Paolo walking. We're trying to stay as positive as possible.
This whole experience has had a profound impact on my family. It’s crazy to think that one little incident, like falling off a bed, can change a life and the lives of those around you so much. There was a song that came out over a decade ago called The Sunscreen Song and there's a verse in that song that has always stuck with me—“Don’t worry about the future; or worry, but know that worrying is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubblegum. The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind; the kind that blindside you at 4pm on some idle Tuesday.” Paolo’s injury has blindsided us but has also put things into perspective for us. The stupid shit I worried about two weeks ago seems so trivial when faced with this.
