11-15-2007

Wow, it's been way too long since I posted here.

Cindy (the cat who went blind in my last installment) is doing both better and worse. Her blindness went away once she was on the blood pressure meds for a week or so (yay!). Shortly after that, we scheduled her for a dental cleaning which was supposed to be last week. For about a week before the appointment, we noticed she seemed more withdrawn, was eating less, legs seemed a little stiffer, and finally a day or two before her appointment, Tom noticed she was breathing funny, looked like she was using more muscles to breathe than she should have to, like it was taking more effort than it should (of course, they were working on the respiratory system in school that week). We waited till her appointment, since it was so close anyway. That morning, she was worse than ever, and the vet was quite concerned. After a quick x-ray, it was determined she had a *lot* of pleural fluid basically crushing her poor lungs. They drew off over 100ml right then and there, and sent Tom with her to the vet hospital in Akron, where they drew off an other 150+ml, and took ultrasounds and diagnosed heart failure.

Heart failure and kidney failure in the same animal is a bad thing; treating one hurts the other, for the most part. Since last week, we've been basically keeping her comfortable; she's on less sub-q fluid, the blood pressure meds, a diuretic, every-other-day shots of some hormone that should help with production of red blood cells (she's also anemic), and now an appetite stimulant, since she hadn't been eating. She's now eating Hill's a/d, which is worse for her kidneys than the food she had been on, but at least she'll eat it, and she's perked up a bit since last weekend, which was pretty much the low point so far. Tom has her back at the hospital right now for her follow-up. We know it's just a matter of time, now, but given how well she's doing so far (considering), we've booked her to be boarded at the vet while we're gone for Thanksgiving. We're hoping that's not optimistic.

In other news, we've been sick; Tom brought home a nasty headcold from the clinic at the end of last week, and was so generous he decided to share it with me. He's mostly recovered, and I'm down to "slightly stuffy and occasional coughing fits"; hoping to be well for the outings and errands we have planned for this weekend.

In yet other news, apparently, today is "Childfree women's blogging day":

http://purplewomenblog.blogspot.com/200 ... ov-15.html

I don't have a truly public blog anywhere, and I don't feel the need to blog about being childfree here, but in case any of you are curious, this is probably the best post I've seen today; it's about why the childfree label is, and why it's necessary:

http://naamah-darling.livejournal.com/292295.html