Dawn & Nova
Member Since 2010
A Caturday report from us finally!!
We're still around.. I lurk from time to time but things have been pretty crazy around here the last 4 months. Not really much going on, on the diabetes front though.
Nova had dental surgery which was pretty uneventful other than she by far has the worst time recovering from the surgery medications of any cat I've ever had. She goes in early and stays late at the vet on surgery day to get lots of extra fluids which helps, but she's still a wreck. A week later Jerry (Heart disease - HCM) tore his ACL. I actually woke up from a nap to find him dragging his hind leg and was in the car driving to the emergency vet within about 5 minutes. I thought he threw a blood clot (common sign of heart failure) and I was taking him to have him put to sleep. Much to the surprise of everyone involved, it was a sports injury (really common for dogs but VERY uncommon for an indoor, not pure bred, not overweight cat). And a crazy week of specialists (knee and heart) trying to help me decide whether invasive surgery with a really tough recovery, on a dying cats knee was a good idea. Nobody came up with an answer.
I was basically 50/50 (surgery or PTS, I considered the third option of trying natural recovery but he was miserable and let me know he didn't want to go on the way things were) and in the end only went ahead with the surgery because I selfishly didn't want to look back and wonder if I chose against the surgery because it was insanely expensive (there were cheaper options for surgery, including his primary doctor, which said she would try if I wanted her to, but felt pretty strongly that this sort of surgery in a situation like Jerrys, should only be done by the absolute best).
Recovery was awful, slow, and did I mention awful? I love having him here with me now, but knowing how tough recovery is, I'm not sure I would make the same choice again. For the first month I think I had "the talk" with him at least a half a dozen times a day, but he never gave up.
Had to drastically restrict his movement for the first 8 weeks, so we all lived in a tiny room for that period. Things got heated between the cats from time to time because of the close quarters and somewhere in there Hitch (cerebellar hypoplasia and a rare immune system disorder) got bit. With his weak immune system the absess turned into a full scale disaster that lasted a month. Nothing says fun like a cat with CH and an infected open wound on his side (he falls a lot). Vet visits, draining, medications, getting sick from medications, compresses, scrubbing the wound open, etc. There aren't words to describe how discusting it was.
Shortly after Jerry was allowed to return to mostly regular activity and Hitch was healed up, Hitch went in for his yearly checkup. His previously beautiful teeth had very quickly gone down hill. He's only 4 years old and there's little explination aside from the theory that maybe something related to his autoimmune disease is causing problems. So he had surgery to remove all the teeth on his top left side.
Nova, not wanting to be out done, decided after Hitch's surgery that after 3 months of being on the same insulin dose (longest time on one dose so far!), she didn't want Hitch getting all the attension. She mixed it up a bit for me, scared me a bit to be honest as I had become relatively used to her being stable on that dose and really didn't have it in me to handle another medical disaster. But we got things back under control pretty quickly.
I haven't been very aggressive about her diabetes since all this stuff went down. I don't test her much unless she's being odd. More often than not if I'm suspicious she is up to no good I'll just give her a snack. I feel bad about it from time to time, but I've been stretched pretty thin lately between the cats, my job and the stress from the huge pile of debt that resulted from surgeries and vet trips in the last 4 months (about $8000 that I can easily account for). I try to keep her in "the blues", low/high enough that I don't have to worry so much. She's been on insulin for 22 months (levemir for 9 months now), so the hope is always still there of course, but lets just say it's not something I'm holding my breath for
.
I don't know when Nova and Jerry were born but I celebrate their birthdays together on August 31. Pretty exciting because this year Nova will be 10ish and Jerry will be 8ish! More than I could have ever asked for either of them, and every day, even through the last 4 months, I thank the powers that be that I'm so lucky. That Jerry actually lived to be a senior citizen is one of the most amazing miracles and to still have Nova here after all the complications she's had through her life, I couldn't be more blessed. Hitch is pretty cool too.
So that's my big ramble of where we have been. A lot of new faces around here since I've been really active, and a lot of people seemed to have moved on, but still some of the old around as well. Hope everyone is doing well, whether I know you or not!
Dawn
We're still around.. I lurk from time to time but things have been pretty crazy around here the last 4 months. Not really much going on, on the diabetes front though.
Nova had dental surgery which was pretty uneventful other than she by far has the worst time recovering from the surgery medications of any cat I've ever had. She goes in early and stays late at the vet on surgery day to get lots of extra fluids which helps, but she's still a wreck. A week later Jerry (Heart disease - HCM) tore his ACL. I actually woke up from a nap to find him dragging his hind leg and was in the car driving to the emergency vet within about 5 minutes. I thought he threw a blood clot (common sign of heart failure) and I was taking him to have him put to sleep. Much to the surprise of everyone involved, it was a sports injury (really common for dogs but VERY uncommon for an indoor, not pure bred, not overweight cat). And a crazy week of specialists (knee and heart) trying to help me decide whether invasive surgery with a really tough recovery, on a dying cats knee was a good idea. Nobody came up with an answer.
I was basically 50/50 (surgery or PTS, I considered the third option of trying natural recovery but he was miserable and let me know he didn't want to go on the way things were) and in the end only went ahead with the surgery because I selfishly didn't want to look back and wonder if I chose against the surgery because it was insanely expensive (there were cheaper options for surgery, including his primary doctor, which said she would try if I wanted her to, but felt pretty strongly that this sort of surgery in a situation like Jerrys, should only be done by the absolute best).
Recovery was awful, slow, and did I mention awful? I love having him here with me now, but knowing how tough recovery is, I'm not sure I would make the same choice again. For the first month I think I had "the talk" with him at least a half a dozen times a day, but he never gave up.
Had to drastically restrict his movement for the first 8 weeks, so we all lived in a tiny room for that period. Things got heated between the cats from time to time because of the close quarters and somewhere in there Hitch (cerebellar hypoplasia and a rare immune system disorder) got bit. With his weak immune system the absess turned into a full scale disaster that lasted a month. Nothing says fun like a cat with CH and an infected open wound on his side (he falls a lot). Vet visits, draining, medications, getting sick from medications, compresses, scrubbing the wound open, etc. There aren't words to describe how discusting it was.
Shortly after Jerry was allowed to return to mostly regular activity and Hitch was healed up, Hitch went in for his yearly checkup. His previously beautiful teeth had very quickly gone down hill. He's only 4 years old and there's little explination aside from the theory that maybe something related to his autoimmune disease is causing problems. So he had surgery to remove all the teeth on his top left side.
Nova, not wanting to be out done, decided after Hitch's surgery that after 3 months of being on the same insulin dose (longest time on one dose so far!), she didn't want Hitch getting all the attension. She mixed it up a bit for me, scared me a bit to be honest as I had become relatively used to her being stable on that dose and really didn't have it in me to handle another medical disaster. But we got things back under control pretty quickly.
I haven't been very aggressive about her diabetes since all this stuff went down. I don't test her much unless she's being odd. More often than not if I'm suspicious she is up to no good I'll just give her a snack. I feel bad about it from time to time, but I've been stretched pretty thin lately between the cats, my job and the stress from the huge pile of debt that resulted from surgeries and vet trips in the last 4 months (about $8000 that I can easily account for). I try to keep her in "the blues", low/high enough that I don't have to worry so much. She's been on insulin for 22 months (levemir for 9 months now), so the hope is always still there of course, but lets just say it's not something I'm holding my breath for
.I don't know when Nova and Jerry were born but I celebrate their birthdays together on August 31. Pretty exciting because this year Nova will be 10ish and Jerry will be 8ish! More than I could have ever asked for either of them, and every day, even through the last 4 months, I thank the powers that be that I'm so lucky. That Jerry actually lived to be a senior citizen is one of the most amazing miracles and to still have Nova here after all the complications she's had through her life, I couldn't be more blessed. Hitch is pretty cool too
.So that's my big ramble of where we have been. A lot of new faces around here since I've been really active, and a lot of people seemed to have moved on, but still some of the old around as well. Hope everyone is doing well, whether I know you or not!
Dawn
