Ok, back from the vet. I'm still processing everything. And wait until the "Teyla" paragraph... this is some M. Knight Shyamalan shit.
So Teal'c... yeah. His poop tested clean and the vet was just like, "How can he have a full belly and still be so emaciated?" He said that it looked like a basic case of failing to thrive. He's getting nutrition (I've been making damn sure of that), but it's not being processed. There just isn't much to be done about that, unfortunately. 🙁 That was one thing I did not want to hear. 🙁 He said that it just happens sometimes, and that it could have been anything from genes that were passed down to problems with incubation in the egg, etc. We have no way of knowing, but he told me he was sure that it was nothing I did wrong (which I really needed to hear). He told me to take him home, keep him warm, keep up the supportive care, and cross my fingers. He put Teal'c and Teyla both on a medication that should help with appetite and anything the poop test might not have caught. That is all we can do. I guess that's the best I can expect. You should have seen the shock on the vet's face when I told him that they were the same age. 🙁
Teyla... well. She's spending the night with Dr. Atlas tonight. This morning when I was packing them up I noticed that her UV light had fallen on one side. What I didn't notice was that... her leg is broken. 🙁 I just scooped her up and left. When they put her on the scale to weigh her, the tech was like, "Does her leg always look like this?" And I was like, "NO! What hap... ohhh..." It hit me like a ton of bricks. Her fucking light fell on her. 🙁 I'm going to make sure it's impossible for that to happen again before she comes home tomorrow. Thankfully, it's a clean break. Dr. Atlas is recommending a splint, and I will have to take her back to Birmingham every week for 6 weeks to have it changed. ... Um... while I'm totally sad that she is hurt, really, that couldn't have been better timing. If you're gonna get hurt, doing it right before a trip to the vet is a good idea. Not that it was in any way her fault. I'm not actually sure how that happened, but it WILL NOT happen again. Bloody hell. I can't afford accidents. 😳
So, there it is. While I had hoped there was something more to be done for Teal'c - something that I'd missed or overlooked - I feel better just knowing that Dr. Atlas thinks I've done the right things. And he is totally nice. He made me feel better, and yeah, I couldn't help it; when I was telling him about Teal'c, I just busted out crying. I SO don't want him to die on me. I'm not giving up on him as long as he's hanging in there, though. But I do need to accept that whatever happens now is beyond my control. Unfortunately, that is a REALLY hard thing for me to do. 🙁
You know, none of the people there knew how to pronounce his name and every one of them ended up calling him TLC. I didn't correct them because damn, he's been getting a lot of that. It fits. 🙂 But I never noticed until today how that is all of the letters in his name, except for the vowels. Odd coincidence, I guess.
Oh, and I'll find out about the bill tomorrow. I'm a little nervous. Between the cost of the office visit, the x-ray, and Teyla's ongoing care... yeah. I might be in a little deeper than I expected. Oh well. I feel less stressed over money than I do over my little ones when they are not doing well. I'll survive. Just might get a few more gray hairs in the process. 😳
