A Little Progress

So Bethany is getting used to the medication. At first it made her completely wobbly and out of it. She still has moments when I can tell it's affecting her because she walks slow and is very deliberate about her actions. Sometimes she tries to jump onto something and doesn't make it. Which makes me sad because she was my most graceful kitty. But I haven't noticed any "episodes" in a few days. Soon we will test the level of the drug in her system. I'm so not looking forward to that since she is soooo hard to draw blood from. I try to reason with her and tell her if she would just stay still, it would be over in 20 seconds. She doesn't seem to care and puts up an amazing fight for something so small! Guess I can't blame her...

Otherwise things are ok. I can't remember if I wrote about it, but I went up to Winter Park on the 10th with my friend A and his friend from Bucknell (I don't really remember him, but he looked familiar). We rode the Ski Train from Denver straight to the ski area. It was nice - pretty good scenery and it was nice to relax on the way home and not have to worry about traffic. I got some pictures of it on the picture site.

Didn't get the job at Alameda, but had another interview on Friday and I have a working interview there on Wednesday. It's super close and seems like a good hospital. We'll see. In the meantime, I'm focusing on keeping my routine of going to the gym - I'm finally seeing a difference which is nice. If I keep it up, I'll be looking good by bathing suit season! Now that I'm picking up kayaking, I gotta think about that - and fitting back into my wetsuit!

I had all the interior doors replaced yesterday. So now I have a project of painting them. I was going to just let the guys do it, but decided to save a little money and do it myself. It's not like I don't have the time!

Relief... sort of

So, Bethany's tap results came back totally normal. Which is good, but it still doesn't tell me what's going on. Dr. Luttgen still doesn't think it's a brain tumor because of how she acts in between these episodes, so instead of jumping to the MRI (which is $1400), we will try putting her on phenobarbitol and see how it works. The good thing about that drug is that it's dirt cheap, but Pacey couldn't handle it - it made him so out of it that he couldn't walk straight. But he was weird to begin with. Hopefully it won't affect Bethany the same way.

So, I'm relieved that she doesn't have encephalitis or FIP or some other infection of the nervous system, but a tumor hasn't been ruled out yet. I guess we'll just see what happens.

I had my working interview - click on the link to the right for my MySpace blog to read about it.

I got some preliminary results back from the neurologist. Her protein is low, which means it's not likely she has FIP. Which is good, because that disease is untreatable and fatal. She'll call me later with the rest of the results and then we'll go from there.

Beth is still a little groggy from the drugs they gave her, and she has the weirdest haircut. They shaved a square behind her ears so she looks a bit like a monk. It's kind of funny. I love kitty skin, it feels like velvet.

I put a link up to my blog on MySpace. I will use that one for work related posts. So check that one too so I don't have to post the same stuff on both blogs. I had my working interview at Alameda yesterday and I'll post about it a little later...

Bethany was so good at her appointment! Dr. Luttgen said she wished all cats were so friendly. She didn't notice anything unusual during the exam. She also said that she doesn't act like a cat with a brain tumor. I decided to let them do a spinal tap to check the cerebrospinal fluid for things like infection. FIP is high on her list of possible things.

This is when Bethany's true nature came out! They took her away and I heard the angry yowling cat that I was hoping would not show her face! But they were able to anesthetize her and get the fluid. She said that normally, they can only get like 0.5 cc of fluid out of a cat and Bethany just flowed and gave her 2 cc! So that's good, we won't have to do that again to get more. It looked normal but they will send it off for testing.

If that's normal, then it's MRI time. In the meantime, I will try to catch one of these "episodes" on camera, but they are so fast that by the time I get the camera out, turn it on, and it's ready, it'll be over. But I'll try.

Well, gotta get ready for my work interview at Alameda East.

So, I was able to bring Bethany home last night. They did not see any more episodes so there was no reason to keep her there. They are leaning more towards neurologic, so we are going to see a neurologist this morning. She will probably have an MRI to see what's going on. I just want to know. It would change how much I tried to treat her. If there is no tumor, then I'd be more willing to try different anticonvulsant drugs. If there is a tumor, then there's not much that can be done, and I'll know that when things get worse, it's time to let go.

I slept downstairs with her last night. They kept her IV catheter in just in case they do an MRI today and b/c she's naughty, she had to have an e-collar on. The poor girl cannot function!

I'll post again after the appointment...

Why?

So, only a few months after I finally have Tristan healthy again, Bethany is hospitalized tonight. Which is tearing me apart because she is my baby. I know as a mother you are not supposed to have favorites, but she is it. Sorry Tristan and Pooh, but there it is.

A few weeks ago I noticed something weird going on, but it was so subtle and she was normal again that I questioned what I was seeing. Today though, what I saw was confirmed. She did it over and over. "It" is something weird. It's like she stares off into space and her head/body sways ever so slowly back or to the side and she falls over. Then I also noticed focal twitching - just her eyes and ears and some facial muscles. This is weird. It's either a mild seizure or an episode where she's passing out due to a heart condition. It seems more like she's passing out, but the twitching is more seizure-like. So first we must rule out which it really is. I'm PRAYING for a heart condition since that can be medicated. If it's really a seizure, we are talking possible brain tumor.

When I got home tonight I called to check in on her, and they called it a seizure. That is not good news. But I will try to stay as optimistic as I can until I get the official news from the vet tomorrow morning.

Why can't I have a healthy household for more than a few months??? Oh yeah, it's the curse of being a technician...