I have some kind of low-level URI. For the past two, three weeks I've occasionally been awakened in the middle of the night with a dry cough, which went away as soon as I got a drink of something. In the past week, though, it's graduated to being slightly productive, and a drink no longer banishes it. That phase has been accompanied by a scratchy throat and slight tonsil pain on one side. I've also been feeling worn out.
So what happens at bedtime? I wake up after a couple hours' sleep needing to take something to get rid of the cough, and end up being awake until it takes effect. Last night I took the medication with my regular pills, and I still woke up at 1 AM.
The really irritating thing: I went to bed perhaps half an hour early last night because I was feeling beat. Woke all the way up at 1 AM, "not even tired" awake for two hours, after which I managed to sleep until 5:30 and then 7 when Mrs. Fungus' alarm went off. No more sleep after that, but got up myself at 9:30 to get ready for my trip south.
Got to the clinic all right; but as soon as I got on the road to come home, almost immediately I started getting sleepy, and had to fight that shit all the way back. Even getting frustrated at that crap and being royally pissed off about it didn't help me.
At one point I think the only thing that saved me from a wreck was Maki meowing at me. I don't know what he needed but he made more noise on this trip (back) than he's ever made in the car; he'd been quiet for a while and suddenly, "Meow!" and I realized that if he hadn't meowed then, I would have gone to sleep.
Managed to make it home safely, then went right to bed and slept for three friggin' hours, just about. And I could stand to get a few more hours' worth of sleep, too, I think.
*sigh*
Anyway, we did the best we could for him, and while he can use the leg all right we could have had a better outcome. With a fracture so close to the joint, the problem is that everything you do for the cat post-op only reduces the chances of contracture; you can't eliminate it, and even in the best of all worlds there's still a good chance the animal won't get full range of motion back.
Maki can't really bend his knee very much--from full extension (180°) it can make an angle of about 160°, give or take--but he can bend it. When I do PT on it, it's stiff at first, but then limbers up and I can bend it until he starts complaining...and I know he's complaining because of the "stretching ligament" feeling rather than any real pain. In fact I'd bet money that most of the stiffness is simply him resisting the motion.
But, look--he can run, he can jump, he can climb, he can do everything he needs to do, and he uses the leg just fine. The cat tree in the family room--the top level is chin-high on me, and that's his favorite spot to sleep! Today I had to get him off the counter because he was licking the pan I used to make last night's dinner. He's a little monkey, going everywhere, including places we don't want him to go, and it's only a matter of time before he figures out he can get over the gates--he was climbing them a week after his surgery and only repeated doses of the squirt bottle dissuaded him from that activity.
Happy and healthy kitten.