The Bibopsy (Extra points to those who get the movie reference)

Fancy had her endoscopy and biopsy yesterday. If I keep taking her in for these procedures, eventually I won’t even have to get her hair cut because she’ll be bald anyway. She now has a patch on her neck shaved where Dr. Fisher drew blood, her tummy shaved for the ultrasound, and a small patch on her arm shaved all the way around for the IV yesterday. It looks like she’s wearing one little boot, and it’s driving my inner OCD crazy.

Good news so far – Dr. Cummings has narrowed it down (again) to Inflammatory Bowel Disease (which is not as funny as some would believe it is, Smith!) or intestinal lymphoma. The results of the biopsy should be back on Monday.

Things are getting back to normal in our household. We’re in a holding pattern until we get the results back, then we can talk about treatment. It’s just a huge relief not having the liver cancer cloud hanging over our heads at this point. Fancy’s putting on weight, getting stronger, and behaving as normal. She met me at the door this evening and is following me around the apartment, so I assume she’s finished being mad at me, although she may be simply studying my patterns, my habits, identifying my weaknesses, and plotting when to strike.

In other news, I think I may be in love with her internal medicine specialist. He’s precious and has been incredibly patient with me as I’ve asked crazy catmom question after crazy catmom question. And he has a very firm handshake. If we get Fancy healed, I may have to keep thinking of reasons to take her back to see him, although I’m not sure I can afford many more $1,200 procedures just to make mooney eyes her doctor. I’ll have to do an ROI analysis before proceeding with that.

Day Five – (Possible) D-Day

Today is Maybe Diagnosis Day. If they were able to make the diagnosis definitively with the liver aspirate, we should hear today. I’ll not exhale until after that call.

Got the call at 1:00 this afternoon.

NOT LIVER DISEASE!!! The tissue samples showed no signs of cancer or other disease and they concluded that the inflammation was secondary to her not eating, and that the problem must be in her upper GI tract. She is scheduled for an endoscopy and biopsy tomorrow.

She’s been acting perfectly normal all day. Ate a full can of food between this morning and this evening. Pee but no poopage. At 6:35 pm, she did vomit twice, but only a small bit of bile, and she resumed normal activity afterwards. Even ate a bit of dry food about an hour later.

I cannot put into words exactly how relieved I am. I’m trying not to get my hopes  up too high, as we could still find out that it’s stomach cancer or something equally horrible. But it could also be something as mundane and treatable as an ulcer.

Here’s to tomorrow!

Consolation Prizes

When I was a kid, I was sick all the time. Literally, every month or so, I’d have a new infection or asthma attack or bug or some kind of weird whatever. Every time I had to go to the hospital, I’d get a doll or some candy or some kind of toy. So, when Fancy came back from the ultrasound* today, it only felt right. Here’s what she scored from her harrowing ordeal:

• 1 new fluffy fleece cushion for her favorite corner
• 1 pair of grooming gloves (since she *desperately* needs groomed and hates the brush, I figured this is a gift for her and me)
• 1 bag of seriously strong organic catnip
• 2 little chicken-shaped boppy toys that pop straight back up when she bats at them (hypothetically, as in, if she ever bats at them)
• 5 cans assorted flavors Science Diet wet food (she loves canned food)
• 1 betta fish complete with contemporary-style bucket (what we commonly refer to as any container for holding a pet)

I sat the fish in his little cup down in front of her on the table when I walked in the door. She vaguely registered that something had been introduced to her environment. Sniffed at it with complete disinterest.

Me: “That’s your fishy!”

Fancy: *silence*

Me: “What are we going to call it?”

Fancy: *ear twitch*

So, we are now the proud new owners of one crazy-looking red betta fish named Twitch.

*We need some time to process everything we learned today, and should know more on Monday. I’ve been shuffling, cataloging, and reorganizing all the information, possibilities, probabilities, and prognoses into one thousand different “what if” scenarios all day and we’ve both been to the gates of Hell and back today. My mind is too cloudy to write about it today, but suffice to say, so far, it’s not horrible, it’s not wonderful, and we’ll know more by Monday. Until then, we’re just gonna keep on keepin’ on.

Day One – Metropolitan Veterinary Specialists

Arrived home from Metropolitan Vet Specialists at 2:00 pm. Fancy immediately ate a substantial amount of dry food and drank some water. Afterwards, she lay down in her corner and slept.

Arrived home from work approximately 4:45. Fancy came to meet me at the door. No evidence that she had eaten any more since 2:00. Ate approximately 2 tbsp tuna.

Arrived home from grocery shopping approximately 8:30. Fancy ate ¼ small can of Science Diet food and drank some water. Played with a new catnip toy I bought for her for a short period of time, then returned to her corner. Overall, seems to have a healthy appetite since receiving the B-12 shot on Wednesday, August 20.

No litter box activity.

Fancy has some strange nocturnal habits. When I go to bed, she remains in her corner until five minutes after the lights go out, then she jumps onto the bed with me. She sleeps on my pillow for about 15 minutes, then moves to “her side” of the bed, where she sleeps for another 15 minutes, then she jumps off the bed and goes to eat or use the litter box, then returns to her corner. Throughout the night, she jumps on and off the bed several times. I’ve noticed over the past week that she’s having difficulty making the jump both onto and off of the bed. I’ve set up boxes beside the bed to act as “steps” to assist her in getting on to the bed but she will not use them. The jump off of the bed and onto the floor seems to cause her pain. She stands very still for several seconds after jumping off.

As she’s walking from room to room, Fancy will often stop, stand still for several seconds, then lie down. She seems uncomfortable when lying down and will shift from her stomach to her side several times.

She is responsive to strings and other toys for only a few moments before losing interest. She still sits in her favorite chair to look out the window and will lie on the couch with me in the evenings for brief moments before returning to her corner. I get the impression she’s simply trying to placate me.