Happy Birthday, Mom! (& Kitty Update)

Happy Birthday, Mom!

Today is my mom's birthday. That's a picture of the two of us just 45 short years ago, in 1971 (when everything was hazy, but still in color). My mom is going to the casino today, then we'll all go out to dinner this evening for Mexican food. Yum!

Kitty Update

Well, it's been a week. Saba got an eye exam from a veterinary ophthalmologist on Monday because Sunday night her pupils were wildly different sizes, so we, thinking that she might have had a stroke, rushed her to the E.R.  The ophthalmology exam showed us that one of her eyes was dilated from an ulcer on her cornea caused by a latent herpes virus flare-up. There are other small lesions on her other eye, too. So we're treating all that with medication and eye drops. But one of the more important findings was that the fungal infection is not in her optical nerve, so that means that it's not in her central nervous system or brain. That is good news because once it reaches the brain, it's pretty much all over.

Anyway, that was Monday.

Wednesday we took her back to the vet for a check up and ended up having two major things done. The first was an adjustment of her esophageal feeding tube. (Did I mention that she had one of those put in to help us get her enough calories and fluids to fight this infection?) The tube had been placed too close to her lower esophageal sphincter which made feeding her an ordeal for everyone. It was taking 40 to 90 minutes per feeding, with four feedings a day. Since they adjusted the tube placement, feedings take 20 minutes and she often falls asleep during them, they're so much less troublesome. So that was one thing.

The other thing she had done was to have another transfusion. This one was actually successful and brought her hematocrit up from 14% to 25%. She is a much, much happier and healthier cat now. She even purred while Dave pet her last night, something that she hasn't done in months, she's been so sick. She's got a long road ahead of her--we all do--but these have been some of the better days we've had since she fell ill.

This is her this morning, when she had just had a nice, big, high-fat meal and a bath facilitated by Dave. Her eyes look a little glossy from the meds (three of them, including some gloopy ointment) that we have to put in them and her leg is shaved from where she had an IV in. Believe it or not, this is the best she's looked in weeks and weeks.