Situation Progress: Not Great, Not The End

It's been an up and down day for Carlos, and by association for me. At the end (spoiler alert) we're both still here, but wrung out.

Carlos spent all day on the bed, other than a brief water-and-litter-box trip after I got up this morning. I checked on him regularly, waking him more often than I'm sure he appreciated.

At 3:30, I ran out to a quick appointment, and when I got back 45 minutes later, I went to check on him before getting back to work.

He wasn't on the bed. He wasn't anywhere.

After about five minutes of increasing panic, I found him, behind a big bookcase I have in the bedroom; it's one of the ones I got when I worked at Barnes & Noble, and they were getting rid of some shelves, so it's massive and heavy. I have it pulled out from the wall a bit, from when I pulled it out to get at the plug behind it and didn't bother to push it back.

He has never gone back there, that I have seen.

And he wouldn't come out.

At that point I called the vet to see if I could bring him in there or should go to the emergency vet, and they said I could bring him in. To sum up, he had fluid in his chest, and they couldn't determine exactly why on x-ray, but they did aspirate some of the fluid, and got (I think she said) 60mL out, which is quite a lot for a nine-pound cat*. She said he was more comfortable after that, and while I could still get an ultrasound on him, to try to figure out the "why" behind it, that wasn't something they could do, nor was it something she thought had to be done tonight.
*Though actually, I don't know if that weight was before or after the fluid came out.

So I brought him home, and though I carried him to the bed, he promptly jumped down and went to his food bowl to eat, then had some water, then had some more food ... which I found very comforting. He then went back to the bed to rest.

Which is where I will be heading before long. I guess it's the two hours of holding myself in readiness for bad news, but every muscle in my back hurts. And I'm emotionally wrung out.

But I didn't bring an empty carrier home. So tonight could have been worse. I'll call tomorrow about the ultrasound, and if you're the praying sort, I would appreciate a few prayers sent our way.