Yuck, yuck, yuck. Last night was very bad.

Nika had been ill with her usual stomach issues (the sickness that keeps on coming back) since about midnight the night before, so we'd been up and down through the night, taking her outside. We expected it to clear up by mid-morning at the latest, like usual. Instead, it got worse and worse through the day. She was in a lot of pain and whining to be taken out about every 20 minutes or so throughout the afternoon and evening. At about 8:30 pm, we saw blood, and called the emergency vets. They told us to bring her in, which we did.

Every time I go to a doctor's office for myself, I feel nervous that they'll think I'm a hypochondriac, that I'm not really sick, I just think I am, etc., etc. When I take Nika, I always hope like crazy that I am a hypochondriac, and there's nothing really wrong. Unfortunately, the vet said that there was actually some possibility that Nika's condition might be very serious--that her gut might be damaged, causing her to bleed internally. To be on the safe side, he kept her at the veterinary practice for overnight observation and to have an IV of antibiotics and fluid pumped into her.

Patrick and I had both thought it was worth calling the vets, but neither of us had thought we would be leaving her there. Of course, it's silly to worry more when she's actually at the vets'--the safest possible place for her to be when she's ill--but...The house felt really empty without her last night. I kept forgetting that she wasn't there, and doing my normal subconscious checking, keeping an eye on where she was...but she wasn't.

The vet told us that we'd be called sometime after 8 this morning, and we'd find out then whether we could bring her home today or whether she needed to stay another day, have more tests, etc. It's about 9:30 now, and Patrick's had to go in to work for a meeting. I'll have a work meeting myself this afternoon, discussing the details of my new job. I really, really hope I will have heard from the vets by then. I really, really hope this was just a particularly violent stomach bug, and the night of observation will result in a verdict of nothing really wrong.