Rough Week

Hello Friends! Sorry it's been so long since I've posted. This has been a rough week for our little family. As you may remember, we lost our beloved Pooka last July to a blood clot that caused a stroke. The humane thing was to let him go rather than let him suffer. We were (and still are) devastated from him loss.

Pooka has a brother, my little tabby cat Higgy. He's been fighting hyperthyroidism for the past few years, but doing pretty decent. Monday, though, I noticed his front legs looked really swollen. Thinking it had something to do with his thryoidism, we made an appointment at the vet's. Thinking it wasn't anything serious, just some weird off-shoot of his thyroid issue, we were blind sided when the vet asked us about his breathing and wanted to do an x-ray immediately. We consented (nothing new with the cats getting x-rays). The results of the x-rays showed a large amount of fluid in his lungs. We approved the removal of the fluid and when he was returned to us he seemed so much better. They removed 270ml of fluid from his lungs and sent out the fluid for testing, but the early diagnosis was cancer.

We got a call on Tuesday from the vet asking if we could come in to go over the test results and what our options were. The results of the test did not indicate cancer, but the other levels in the fluid indicated illness, with the x-rays and cat scans supporting the diagnosis of lymphatic cancer. The vet couldn't give us an estimation of how much time we have left with him. The treatment option for all of us is not to do chemo on a 16 year old cat, but to keep him comfortable for as long as we can. He is on two new meds, cortisone and lasic (spelling?) to help with the symptoms.

So far, so good. He's breathing better than he was. The fluid that built up in his front legs has drained almost back to normal. He's eating well. He's sitting with us a lot and being cute. I am going to drink this all in. I have been taking photos of him doing the most mundane things, so I have a record of everything. We didn't have that opportunity with Pooka, so I am going to do all I can to live every moment I can with Higgy. He's a great cat and will be greatly missed when we have to let him go. Here's to living every moment in the here and now, to enjoy and love those who mean the most.

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