I spent three days in the hospital back in February after they cleaned out the maggots and eggs and then I nearly died back at home when I severely overheated from an improper UV light fixture in the bathtub. But I pulled through and I've been doing my best.
It's been wild weather here, starting last September with six inches of rain in one day, and I got an infection from the wet weather. But I pulled through and then we managed my care indoors until I tapered off my steroid injections for a very short hibernation. My Tortoise Mom and Dad checked my weight and put anti-inflammatory ointment in my eyes every two weeks.
All went well for part of December and January. Then it rained. And rained. The burrow was so wet that I had to stay chilled in a box on the patio until it dried out. My Tortoise Dad used a giant light to dry it out faster so I could go back in the burrow for another month. After several days of keeping me cool enough outside, the burrow was dry and my Tortoise Mom put me back in the burrow. I immediately turned around, looked at her and was so desperate to come back out. She didn't know what I knew, that it wasn't safe for me in the burrow anymore.
A few days later, my Tortoise Mom noticed the humidity was at 100% and the weather guy on tv talked about ground saturation. She got a terrible feeling and put a sensor in the burrow. The humidity was 85%. Dr. Johnson's office said that was way too much moisture for any desert tortoise, especially me.
A week later my Tortoise Mom and Dad checked my weight but when they went to put the ointment in my eyes as usual, they noticed something in my right eye. Tortoise Mom can't see well so asked if it was larva of some type. Tortoise Dad said no, it was probably pollen. So they cleaned my eyes and added more ointment. But Tortoise Mom was very worried. Tortoise Dad promised to recheck my eyes in two days.
That stretched into a few more days and finally he pulled me out of the burrow and brought me in the house and noted that the specks were back in my eyes. Only this time my mouth was bleeding on both sides too. I had an emergency visit to Dr. Johnson's office. He wasn't there so other vets rushed me into an incubator to pull me out of hibernation. I went from 56 degrees in the burrow to 100 degrees in the incubator within an hour. The vet also cleaned all the eggs out of my eyes - both of them by now - and found that three had hatched and were eating tissue in my eyes and mouth. So that's why my mouth was bleeding. This other vet gave me morphine for the pain, but then I couldn't wake up, so that's why I stayed in the incubator in the hospital for those extra days. They said the liver has to process the medication and maybe it was failing, but my blood tests came back saying my liver was fine.
My Tortoise Mom was so heartbroken and insisted on visiting me in the incubator. By that time I had perked up and tilted my head when I heard her voice. That was a positive sign for her so she let me stay in the hospital. But Dr. Johnson wasn't there and the other vets and techs didn't understand all my very special needs and how my Tortoise Mom and Dad compensate for my problems eating and drinking. So I just kept dehydrating even though they gave me fluids. And I haven't been able to eat a lettuce leaf by myself in years. They did their best, just didn't know what I really needed.
Meanwhile Tortellini had been staying in the same burrow with me. But she came barreling out shortly before I was put back in - oh how I wish I could have told my Tortoise Mom it was very bad for me in there after all the rain, even though it had dried out it seemed. Tortellini's eyelids looked puffy and she wasn't acting normal by being out in the yard instead of inside a burrow in February. So she went to the vet too just to make sure nothing had affected her in that wet burrow too.
We both came home that day. She was ok, but I had a very long road to recovery back in the bathtub indoors. But like I said, I overheated due to a replacement UV light fixture that allowed the heat to radiate too much so I couldn't control my body temperature and I severely overheated. They found me foaming at the mouth and gasping for air two days later. So they cooled me down in the living room and finally realized what was wrong with the light fixture. Please, only approved fixtures for tortoises!!! They keep the heat in one spot so I can move under it to get warmer and away to get cooler. But the wrong fixture radiates the heat so there's no cooler place to go.
For the last few months I've been staying indoors but will only eat my Mazuri diet outdoors. So I sit in my blue pan with a temperature sensor nearby to keep me at 85 degrees so I can digest my food. Too cool and I can't, plus I just go back to sleep. Too hot and I overheat in minutes.
May was the coolest and wettest for our area so I was able to go outside when it was warm and dry but went back indoors when it rained and until the ground totally dried out. No more high humidity! Then in the last 10 days or so it started warming up to the upper 90s. I started hanging out at the burrow entrance. The big burrow, you know, my FAVORITE! It's under a giant tree so there's dappled sun in the morning and it's ideal for me to eat my breakfast in my little blue pan. I get my eye drops and then get them washed out when I get a nice long drink. I love the hose dribbling on top of my head to soothe my eyes and I hold my mouth open to get a drink. When I'm done, I turn away and blow the excess out my nose and mouth. So ladylike.
Yesterday I had my breakfast and drink and eye wash and sat basking in the dappled shade of the big burrow entrance like I've been doing lately. But this time I didn't scoot inside the entrance right way. I stayed in outside where it was warmer. My Tortoise Mom kept checking to make sure I could see out of my left eye (right eye has never recovered and isn't visual at all, or even able to open more than a crack), but I seemed happy to be hanging out in the shade at the burrow entrance, so she left me there but kept checking on me in the dappled shade until 2 p.m. I was fine.
Then a terrible thing happened. It was 103 degrees yesterday. Suddenly. And the sun came around to shine directly on me from the west in the late afternoon when I'm usually inside the burrow. My Tortoise Mom was busy inside and didn't remember to check me again until 5 p.m. When she found me I couldn't move and my eyes were both sealed shut, not just closed, but sealed, and I was moving my head back and forth trying to help myself but I couldn't move. She ran me indoors and called the vet, then started taking my temperature with an infrared thermometer and then cooling me down in my blue pan with room temperature water. I immediately peed and pooped and also drank a lot from the clean water she dribbled on my head. Stacey at Dr. Johnson's office said that was a good sign so I didn't have to come in to be checked until today.
I had been scheduled to get a refill on my steroid injections. I've been getting them every two weeks for myocitis. They're supposed to make me hungry, thirsty and build muscle. But I'm not very hungry, I drink a lot but also pee a lot, and I have lost even more muscle so my legs are so weak now.
Dr. Johnson was very sad and says he thinks I'm "failing". He did blood tests to see if it's kidney or liver failure. (Again!) He also gave me antibiotics, a tube feeding and also hydration. He did all the eye cleaning and said my right eye is severely damaged from the fly eggs/maggots and the eye is tilted and hazy. We knew it was not usable, but he doesn't think it's causing infection. My mouth is red and saliva is thick. He thinks it's more than my overheating emergency yesterday. I'm severely dehydrated despite all the drinks I get daily.
So now I'm back indoors in the bathtub with the heat light at 85 degrees. I got so upset that I peed out most of the fluids they gave me today. I need my eyes cleaned tonight and more medication put in them for infection and inflammation. Then tomorrow is another day.
Dr. Johnson will call with test results early this week and then he'll know more. But I already know. No matter how you slice it, I'm weaker, skinnier, and unable to cope with being outdoors on my own. I know what that means.
Today they put my age down as 50. We had planned a celebration but everyone is just sad now. I am so grateful for all the care that added six years of love and special care to my life. If they hadn't opted to save my life with bladder stone surgery in 2009 I wouldn't be a blogger or have had all this extra time to appreciate life. Now we're at the point of deciding quality of life. I really don't want to spend the summer indoors in the bathtub. I love eating outdoors. I love the light. I love to hear the birds and smell all the yard smells. I love just thinking about the big burrow and snuggling in the soft dry dirt to stay comfortable. I really don't want to give that up to waste away in the bathtub all summer too. But I know I can't handle the temperature extremes outdoors, even in a dry burrow. And that's before monsoon rains hit in a month.
Also I've always been such a trooper at Dr. Johnson's office. But I was seriously upset today. Seriously not happy at all. Today's treatment was too much for me. I'm just saying.
So I'll keep you posted and we'll take everything step by step. But even a simple tortoise like me knows there's no coming back to be a backyard tortoise this summer. There's no coming back to grazing, drinking, walking around on my own. Even if I could magically have an 85 degree summer. It will be 107 tomorrow and then only getting hotter and wetter.
Well I thought it would help to get these thoughts off my shell and let you know what's been going on. Thanks for always rooting for me and cheering me on. Thanks too for letting me share my life with you. I am one lucky tortoise. In 1978 someone dropped my brother Charlie and me off at my Tortoise Mom's yard. She never even knew who the people were and wasn't even home when they came. They said we hatched in 1965. They had drilled holes in our shells and chained us up to keep us from eating their garden, but of course that didn't work. Anyway they picked a good home for us. My Tortoise Mom had a tortoise since she was 10 so they figured she could take care of us. Charlie drowned in a pool in 1994 when he climbed a prickly pear to make it over the bench wall to the pool. Tortellini came along in the early '80s when someone found a bulldozer destroying her burrow. Between the three of us, we produced more than three dozen baby tortoises and found homes for all but one. Charlie2. She's just like her dad.
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| 1986 Charlie and Grandma |
But no one is like my Tortoise Mom whose voice always makes me perk up. I always make her feel better about anything. We just have a connection, so calm and peaceful. She says I'm am her favorite friend, and it's true I do listen to her intently whether she's happy or sad. She has always talked to us but I'm the only one who listened.
No matter what happens, it's been a good life and everyone has done their best for me. How many can say that at the end of their life? To love and be loved, to be cared for no matter what. And to only want what's best for me, even when it's so hard to say goodbye. That's love. Maybe we've all learned more about it through the care and feeding of a simple little tortoise with health problems, special needs and a way of touching hearts. In the end only love matters. God bless us all.
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