((((Laura)))), ((((Skinky)))),
We are wondering how you made out at the North Shore Animal Hospital on Saturday. Has Skinky been admitted there? We are all thinking about you.
Ella & Rusty
Oh Hi, Linda! I"m not getting notifications on here now for some reason. I WAS before the "fix".
North Shore was a disappointment. I spoke with a case manager there who I had been playing phone tag w/ about a possible dental visit and anesthesia. A place in NJ quoted 1400 for dental w/ anesthesia so I was hoping North Shore would be much less expensive. She said she'd try to help anyway she could, that they were a no-kill place, blah blah, but had to see the cat first. So I SCHLEPPED up there (close to 1.5 hrs each way, on two trains) and saw a vet, not a dental specialist. He was more informative actually than the oncologist, and he stated that he thought she had thickened intestines, basically he pretty much suggested either a CT scan (which they didn't have there) or putting her to sleep. Once again, feeding tube out of the question because they didn't want to do anesthesia on her. I was THIS close to JUST DOING IT. I mean if all these doctors are saying this...I asked him if he thought she was in pain, and he said he felt that she was uncomfortable because of the pressure on her eye - the swelling. So I got the totals for the euthanasia, went through 4 or 5 kleenexes...I think they thought I was going to do it...heck I thought I was going to do it...but I changed my mind. Part of me wanted to because of the roller coaster and I felt like I'll never do it. etc., etc. Then again, I had already scheduled a visit on Sunday w/ the Manhattan vet (the north shore visit just came up suddenly after a lot of phone tag w/ their case manager...). I thought I"d wait to see what the Manhattan vet said. I mean once the two injections are done, no turning back...and I am very glad I waited. The Manhattan vet commented that she DID gain a few ounces and she was actually quite spry, jumping from the table with a fair amount of agility and poking her crooked little nose into all sorts of nooks and crannies and investigating. They are very nice at this place and when she is at one of the sliding doors being curious, they actually open it for her to pass through...so they have been the vets who have observed her behavior most and not just made a snap decision based on her very uncomfortable looking facial appearance. Who knew such aesthetic discrimination existed toward kitties? This vet understood my...hesitation with PTS. "This is not the behavior of a cat ready to be put down".
So I super stocked up on supplies. subQs infused w/ potassium, she got a b12 shot, i got a syringe of the much maligned convenia to give her in a couple of days, I bought a BOTTLE of cerenia (ha!) and a bottle of dexamethasone, a vial of butronex, and a TON of of all sorts of needles. She brought up a drug, i think it was palladia? used for cancer, but wanted me to ask the oncologist what she thought...she didn't want to prescribe it without the oncologist's input or approval..
So I sent an email to the onocologist from AMC asking about palladia and the oncologist said NO, not without a diagnosis. &*%$#. So I emailed her back, copying in the Manhattan vet, and pushed a bit, but politely...reiterating that the "diagnosis" costs 4600, which I don't have, that we don't qualify for the "buddy fund", presumably because Skink's prospects are dim (that is what the case manager said she assumed the oncologist meant, when the ONCOLOGIST said skinky didn't qualify for the buddy fund. again - %$#&*), and threw her description of skinky back at her "a very sick old lady" (have you EVER? She could be 25, and she's still my baby.) so given all of that, as her owner I was willing to assume any risks with the palladia as it seems that skinky doesn't have much hope. Again - %&$#@.
She called today. Said blah blah, and that she would call the vet tomorrow to discuss. So it's passing the ball really. the oncologist doesn't want to prescribe w/o a diagnosis, but will talk to the vet about it if the vet wants to prescribe it. And NOW, the oncologist says that Skinky COULD get sedated and the nose could be aspirated and blood taken for a culture, and that it's only 50% chance, but maybe it would tell us what kind of cancer and we MIGHT have a better idea of treatment. HELLO? WTF?? *I* pierced her nose, sorry "aspirated" her nose a couple of weeks ago when it looked like that thing was coming to a head and the pressure from it was making her eye bleed. It takes a strong email w/ a BCC and CC to another vet to come up with this?
This is really why I just hate most vets and medicine in general. I don't know that the vet, who I really do like by far and away the most, is willing to do this either, but I'll have a better idea maybe tomorrow.
I started giving her something called DCA a few days ago. She's also getting all of these "herbal supplements", to boost her immune system. I don't think there's going to be any clear linear pattern with her health one way or the other. Probably some steps forward, some steps backward. The big thing that I feel badly about is that I am having a very difficult time of it physically. Just from lugging her tiny body around two days in a row, I threw my back out (i'm an orthopedic nightmare). Just had some shots in the back from a neurologist..but as such, it's tough picking her up and putting her down and trying to bend over and entice her with the multiple cans of food that she turns her nose up at. We are back to good ol' AD mixed w/ catsure, syringing it. All in all, she's doing fairly well (today). Got some infant similac for her too for gassiness, but it's cherry flavored?? I can't find it PLAIN w/o any freaking sugar.
So...that's how she's doing...OH! and the vet thought her eye looked a little better and maybe she even blinked. In fact, at one point skinky was grooming her self and the vet was surprised and said 'is that you trying to groom yourself?'. I'm guessing because it's not the behavior of a cat ready to leave this earth..?
so that's where we are. i gotta scan bills and post but i've been having such a good time lying on floor, I didn't want to disrupt the party.
