Update on Kitty Cat
Aug. 8th, 2010 09:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hypatia42Life with my cat has become very different. We are both by nature very independent types. While devoted to each other the changes are not ones that we will be interested in keeping unless no other option is open to us. Knowing my cat I'm not sure I would let her stay in this state. That is not to say I'm being defeatist. If she can get better by any reasonable means then I will make it happen.
Lesse... when last we spoke(Tuesday the 3rd) we were looking at idiopathic vestibular syndrome or hyperthyroidism as best case scenarios. Blood work was done up to test for the thyroid problems which would have nicely explained why she's been so very close to dangerously underweight most of her life. No dice on either. I finally heard back from the Internal Med doc after noon on Wed to find out that we needed to decide on whether or not to schedule an MRI and spinal tap which requires anesthesia. I said yes and spent the rest of the day trying like nothing to get my cat to eat more than my finger dipped in baby food. Also no dice. She was mostly unresponsive and not able to move herself at all. I had several people come over and sit with me so I could sit with her and not fall apart. Love you guys.
The appt was scheduled for 10:30 with an arrival time of 7am for prep. We arrived having been told that we could talk to the neurologist who was taking over her case to find that he doesn't get to the hospital til 8am. Why we had to be there at 7 I have no idea. So we sat there for over an hour getting cold and trying not to actively worry about my girl. The neurologist was amazing. His bedside manner(so to speak) was exemplary and I wish I could as easily talk to my neurologist. We explained that we didn't want to put her through the MRI and spinal tap if there was a good chance that we would have to put her down afterward. We talked and decided to go for it anyway.
After giving her to them, they told me that we had been moved up in the schedule to 9:30. It was about 9 when M and I left the hospital to work a bit of magic and pray like the dickens for a course of action. Anything but not knowing. We grabbed food and caffeine and headed back to the hospital. We arrived about the time that her MRI should have been done. The neuro came out and talked to us around 10:45. He told us that he didn't find any masses or tumors on the images and wanted our go ahead to do the spinal fluid tap. I put things together in my brain such that I realized we had effectively ruled out the worst things. The neuro concurred. The other "common" options were some sort of brain infection and after that we start looking for the really rare stuff. Really rare like he's seen 2 cases in the 20 years he's been doing this. We gave him the go ahead for the spinal tap.
Noon and finally a test that didn't come back saying, "You have a normal healthy cat." For all you A&P buffs out there what came back was a count of 68, where normal is 5, of non-deteriorating nucleated cells. 80% of those were white blood cells. She has some sort of infection. In her brain... Several options; viral, bacterial, or fungal. Sounds familiar no? Are there other types of infections? Dunno. The tests for which of these it is are sent out to a lab, 3-5 day return. He gave us the option of starting antibiotics and steroids but didn't recommend the steroids just yet because if it is a fungal infection it could easily make it worse to the point where it was untreatable. aside: How does one get a fungal infection in the brain anyway?
We opted for the antibiotics with no steroids and the promise of being able to take her home once they warmed her up. The whole bldg is freakin cold. Apparently the MRI room is in the basement and even colder. They have to wake up the animals and then slowly bring their body temps back up to norm. That took 3 hours. We got the girl and her new food and meds and the bill paid and left by 3:30.
Home by four at which time I crashed for 50 min and then left for work. Despite arriving 1.5 hrs late, he let me go home early.
Yesterday and today have been a remarkable turn around from Tuesday and Wednesday. She has been eating more. She's moving herself around. Yesterday evening and today she has been getting pissy with the whole having to be taken care of thing, for which I am profoundly grateful. Last night I asked M to watch the girl while I walked out of the room on the principle that she may not be physically capable of getting up and walking off but she has the WILL to do so and may decide that she'd do it anyway.
My work has been exemplary this whole week. The people at the University of Minnesota's Veterinary Medical Hospital have been beyond amazing and available to answer any questions and speak to worries we have. All of my family and friends have kept in touch and made sure I had food for me while I was focused elsewhere. I want to make everyone cookies.
Lesse... when last we spoke(Tuesday the 3rd) we were looking at idiopathic vestibular syndrome or hyperthyroidism as best case scenarios. Blood work was done up to test for the thyroid problems which would have nicely explained why she's been so very close to dangerously underweight most of her life. No dice on either. I finally heard back from the Internal Med doc after noon on Wed to find out that we needed to decide on whether or not to schedule an MRI and spinal tap which requires anesthesia. I said yes and spent the rest of the day trying like nothing to get my cat to eat more than my finger dipped in baby food. Also no dice. She was mostly unresponsive and not able to move herself at all. I had several people come over and sit with me so I could sit with her and not fall apart. Love you guys.
The appt was scheduled for 10:30 with an arrival time of 7am for prep. We arrived having been told that we could talk to the neurologist who was taking over her case to find that he doesn't get to the hospital til 8am. Why we had to be there at 7 I have no idea. So we sat there for over an hour getting cold and trying not to actively worry about my girl. The neurologist was amazing. His bedside manner(so to speak) was exemplary and I wish I could as easily talk to my neurologist. We explained that we didn't want to put her through the MRI and spinal tap if there was a good chance that we would have to put her down afterward. We talked and decided to go for it anyway.
After giving her to them, they told me that we had been moved up in the schedule to 9:30. It was about 9 when M and I left the hospital to work a bit of magic and pray like the dickens for a course of action. Anything but not knowing. We grabbed food and caffeine and headed back to the hospital. We arrived about the time that her MRI should have been done. The neuro came out and talked to us around 10:45. He told us that he didn't find any masses or tumors on the images and wanted our go ahead to do the spinal fluid tap. I put things together in my brain such that I realized we had effectively ruled out the worst things. The neuro concurred. The other "common" options were some sort of brain infection and after that we start looking for the really rare stuff. Really rare like he's seen 2 cases in the 20 years he's been doing this. We gave him the go ahead for the spinal tap.
Noon and finally a test that didn't come back saying, "You have a normal healthy cat." For all you A&P buffs out there what came back was a count of 68, where normal is 5, of non-deteriorating nucleated cells. 80% of those were white blood cells. She has some sort of infection. In her brain... Several options; viral, bacterial, or fungal. Sounds familiar no? Are there other types of infections? Dunno. The tests for which of these it is are sent out to a lab, 3-5 day return. He gave us the option of starting antibiotics and steroids but didn't recommend the steroids just yet because if it is a fungal infection it could easily make it worse to the point where it was untreatable. aside: How does one get a fungal infection in the brain anyway?
We opted for the antibiotics with no steroids and the promise of being able to take her home once they warmed her up. The whole bldg is freakin cold. Apparently the MRI room is in the basement and even colder. They have to wake up the animals and then slowly bring their body temps back up to norm. That took 3 hours. We got the girl and her new food and meds and the bill paid and left by 3:30.
Home by four at which time I crashed for 50 min and then left for work. Despite arriving 1.5 hrs late, he let me go home early.
Yesterday and today have been a remarkable turn around from Tuesday and Wednesday. She has been eating more. She's moving herself around. Yesterday evening and today she has been getting pissy with the whole having to be taken care of thing, for which I am profoundly grateful. Last night I asked M to watch the girl while I walked out of the room on the principle that she may not be physically capable of getting up and walking off but she has the WILL to do so and may decide that she'd do it anyway.
My work has been exemplary this whole week. The people at the University of Minnesota's Veterinary Medical Hospital have been beyond amazing and available to answer any questions and speak to worries we have. All of my family and friends have kept in touch and made sure I had food for me while I was focused elsewhere. I want to make everyone cookies.