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05-13-2023 11:35 PM
05-14-2023 06:16 AM
@Sammycat1 - hoping your hip is feeling better and that Frankie is okay. Haven't been able to sign in until now. I'm keeping you in my prayers.
Hope all who are celebrating Mother's Day have a happy one.
Love, TrafficDiva
05-14-2023 11:44 AM - edited 05-14-2023 05:03 PM
Mother's Day report: Hello and Happy Mother's Day to all.
We honestly thought Frankie might die Friday night--this is the 4th semi-similar bout of sudden sickness and vomiting in a little more than a month.
With supportive care to the extreme, and medications on hand, we gradually increased her strength. I had to syringe pedialyte (unflavored) into her, as well as food. We quit the antibiotic and gave only her barest minimum of medications.
She saw her Most Excellent Vet (MEV) Saturday. Her most emergent problem was a severely racing heart, at 200+ BPM. She has had it with going to the vet; an x-ray and a BNP test for heart disease proved negative. Her white blood cell count has normalized, hopefully meaning the severe infection has been cleared by her body.
Blood work showed that her liver enzymes had tripled after weeks of improving/going down--of course, this is very bad. She still had a fever. She lost weight--again. Her MVE is puzzled. She has triad disease, wherein the pancreas, liver or small intestine can all get inflamed at the same time, or alternate. He wonders that chronic pancreatitis keeps flaring and aggravating her liver. Sometimes infection does that, sometimes it's just an autoimmune inflammatory process going wild. She's had 2 ultrasounds and the liver bile duct infection had cleared.
But something is making this misfire in a big way cyclically then disappear like a tornado that creates damage then turns into harmless wisps of wind. Within 24 hours, she went from her third eyelids out, flat as a pancake and too weak to stand and drink water on her own to playing with her chipmunk on a wand. It's beyond stressful to her and to us.
So he armed us with more anti-nausea meds, pulled her off of the antibiotics, increased her prednisolone and told us to just let her keep calm in her house, take her temp late this afternoon, and report back to him tonight via text. Another ultrasound may be needed, but to what end, as he said? Hyperthyroidism also may be making her liver worse, but she can't undergo medication because--irony--cats with preexisting liver problems often fail quickly on that medication.
Today her fever has broken but her weight dropped 3.7% last week. That's a lot.
All this to say: thank you for your support. The reality is, we may not have a lot of time with her left, but as we told the MEV, we're interested in her quality of her life, not quantity.
Today, Frankie and DH presented me with some Mother's Day gifts--a T-shirt and kitty mug & coaster set (note that the spoon has a kitty on the top). But the greatest gift I could have received today is that she's still with us, miraculously--looking out at her back deck, noting her reflection and spotting the top of a bunny's ears as he grazed right off the deck:
05-14-2023 10:17 PM
@Sammycat1I am glad to hear that Frankie has bounced back yet again, but I also wonder what the heck is going on to cause these sudden plunges in well-being and then recoveries. I hope her vet can get to the root cause and find a fix soon!
And I love that T-shirt she got you for Mother's Day, that is the first time I have ever seen the name "Renae" spelled the same way my Mom spelled my middle name!
Hugs to all of you on this Mother's Day, I hope and pray that Frankie will be with you to celebrate it again next year.
05-15-2023 02:20 PM
Oh, the ordeal of caring for a sick pet...the ups and downs are horrendous. The best news (especially for you) on 'Mother's Day weekend' was that Frankie improved (once more), and thanks to your MEV for providing moral support for you three!
05-16-2023 09:16 AM
@Sammycat1 , DH:
Belated Mother's Day wishes. Please forgive me for not responding sooner after your latest update on your Sweet Frankie.
I'm so glad Sweet Frankie was able to push back once again against her health battles. She couldn't do it alone & is blessed to have you both as her loving parents & her MEV as well. I continue praying for the three of you (team work) for having the love & strength for caring for each other. You were all three meant to be together.
Sweet Frankie: I think you're showing your loving Mom & Dad how much they mean to you, and you to them, by surviving. Blessings being sent to you to live your best days as you can. May the sun fill you with light, sun puddles, happiness and warm comfort to enjoy. I hope you're still up to watching your critter friends. Tonight and always, I wish you forever love, comfort, peace & sweet dreams. I love you Little Angel Girl.
05-16-2023 05:19 PM
@Sammycat1 I am just seeing the news that Frankie has put up yet another fight for her life. I pray each day she is getting a tiny bit stronger. Sammy and DH, I know your so tired at this point from stress and worry. I pray all three of you feel better today.
05-16-2023 05:45 PM
@Sammycat1 , I am checking in here on Monday evening to see how the three of you are doing. I want to let you know you are all being lifted up in prayer.
05-16-2023 09:12 PM - edited 05-16-2023 09:16 PM
Tuesday report: Hello, Schmoosters.
First, @CamilleP, who knew we were sisters in name? I've only met one other person besides you that spells our name(s) the same way.
Next, I've conveyed hugs and kisses you've sent directly to Frankie. She eats them up!
Now, a status report: She's holding her own. Her MEV has me taking her heart rate daily and it has dropped into a more safe zone for now.
She's eating better, not requiring an appetite stimulant for 3 days--a miracle! (Today was an exception: the trash guys, the street sweepers, our mowers and the guys paving cracks in our road all showed up at once this morning, scaring the bejeebers out of her).
So she's off antibiotics and still on increased prednisolone to get those liver enzymes to drop back down. Unless she is symptomatic, her MEV doesn't want to do another ultrasound right now because that heart rate zooming up over 200 at the animal hospital due to stress Saturday scared the heck out of all of us in the exam room.
She is in a metabolic balancing act that ultimately will claim her and we're just trying, for now, to keep her balanced for at least one week. But other than biopsies of liver and pancreatic tissue that might pinpoint specific problems (which she's already being treated for) -- biopsies that she likely wouldn't survive -- we're trying to walk the proverbial tightrope.
Your concern for our little family is humbling and helps us enormously. These past several months has been filled with stress and worry--and it helps to know that you know the toll this can take. It eases our burden.
Meanwhile, DH was taking a work break and wanted to take a photo of her for you today while she was on her TV stand watching squirrels, and he snapped his fingers to get her to look at the camera.
Oh, if a look could sear paint. She doesn't like her squirrel-viewing time interrupted:
05-16-2023 10:43 PM
@Sammycat1 Continued prayers for each day to find strength for your little family. DH certainly captured her, she is just beautiful..and so, so loved.
Hugs Dear Friend
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