New Personality

I was warned that there would be some changes in his "voice" which I have not seen, in his energy level etc.

I have been away helping my mom (truly a sick cat was allowing me to obsess in a very benign way until he got well. Now I have a real mother with REAL cancer) as she has results, and doctor appointment and a MOVE from the cold side of the state to the warmer one for the season. The ability to travel is the gift my cat has given me!

Upon returning from two 2-night absences in the past two weeks, all the Dude does is gripe! He has a sort of "YOU know what I want and you are NOT doing it!!" tirade. He also has a separation anxiety sort of siamesy thing that he pulls when the neighbor cat walks out of the yard. I got a serenade when I got home, but no real lovin'.

He LOOKS wide!!! I mean he literally appears to have added a lot of weight. I don't see it on the scales because I have to hold him and subtract the two weights - he jiggles too much! We need to get him in after 30 days post procedure to see what NORMAL looks like, so I will know more.

But for now, I believe I have my old aloof, terminally bored, plotter of my demise back!

dj*

Sunday, and Not a Thing to Report!!

I have been watching too hard.

He is sleepy. Heading under the sofa, off into the back room, but actually, not very long.

Just naps. Lots of them.

I sort of was hoping the wired hyperT would slowly wear off, but that probably happened in his stainless steel box.

So I inflict 5 minutes of quality time now and then. We are sworn to 1/2 hour of direct contact. I don't count rubbing my shoe. It is hard to gauge that, so these little grab and pet things are inflicted on him. He did jump on my chest a couple of times last night as bed time rolled around, but he was twitchy and not really enjoying it.

Today he was sleeping on the floor by his table and I skerched his ear a little. He got up, grabbed a bite, a sip and came over to the chair and stretched. Then he jumped right up, sat ON MY LAP, not his favorite place to stay as he used to be too big, so he preferred horizontal petting, and stayed a full 8 minutes of HIS OWN ACCORD. Went off to lay in the window and is napping again.

I was told by the online forums that a week of this is normal. He did have actual cells in his body fry and sizzle. No telling what that does to a body!

I am going to go visit the boyfriend and will have no curfew for the first time in I can't even REMEMBER! Usually it is dose early or come back home, then morning skip breakfast for the AM treat and meds. We left for a couple of days while he was flushing, but he was at the early part of the hyperT rebound. This is a sleepy cat that could care less and will be happy to see me gone!

Wow!

MOM Is Feeling Better.

I went to bring a can of softer food for him. PERSONALLY (and you know, I don't even play a vet on TV!!) I think the panting, hissing and panic has left him with a raw throat and the panic eating is wearing out his esophagus.

When I went in Katherine was my guide today, as Melanie is off for a longer weekend. (they are open 24 hours a day so they have a lot of staff in and out). This morning we just breezed in through his grump.

This afternoon when we put out the soft food, I pushed it under his nose and he did a healthy munch on it. The Doctor who had called me earlier had a nice chat with me. I really ran out of questions.

Although I was doing everything in my power to manipulate them into letting him come home early, I kept reminding myself that I WAS NOT A VET. They do a good job and are professionals. They pointed out that injecting an antacid quickly while looking him over was fast and painless. I talked them out of anti-nausea meds because he was not actually nauseated if he was throwing a fur ball but something was amiss on the way up.

They will watch his stool tonight to see if it is dark or black and if it is normal, we will probably assume something in the throat. It might just go away and never be heard from again. I did have to authorize new medication (THANK ALL OF YOU WHO HAVE MADE IT EASIER TO SAY YES!!!) They will also inject him again on outgo, while he is groggy.

We had a good discussion about the sedation too.

Some of my great people online are concerned, as am I, about sedating him for baths and medication. Like my girlfriend pointed out, have you ever had a BAD blood pull????? Even if it is just a few pokes, the stress of the table, the isolation, the crowd of strangers, is really taking a toll on him. Kittie valium is a good thing.

And the baths.

I PERSONALLY have no ovaries or any such silliness in the child-producing department that would worry me about the exposure, but I do like that their procedure REQUIRES scrupulous monitoring of his levels and a concern for the lowest reasonable amount of rays to come home with me. I believe that he is licking a lot of his hair out even now! The hyperT coming on when he was flushed (another good thing - it encourages a HEALTHY thyroid GLAND to totally shut off and the nasties to do their worst so the I-131 could zap them all). I wanted him not to be sick again, but if his gland was working AT ALL and the disease was laying low, we would not do the best job we could. His shedding, his immediate oily fur (and I LOVED it that this doctor beat me to the punch!!!) I knew it was his being sick but never quite figured out how! His back would get very nasty. Not really anything. . . sort of like when a dog goes swimming on something he shouldn't on the curb you know?! He started that up at day 5! Full blown sick so all evil doers are gunned down. All that ugly hair won't have to come back home. We can leave it behind.

As I sat and petted him, this time he refused to make eye contact.

I sit on the ground in front of his cage and wear a big gown with cuffs and my lovely purple gloves, I kept trying to get him to say hi! Just the answer to my "Dood!" He scooched into the back wall. This time he didn't even try to get up. Hissing away. Not quite as nasty as this morning.

We opened a can of cheap Friskies pate (ha! Mush is better, but he likes licking it. Won't chomp on the shreads stuff. Just licks it up) And I stuck it under his nose. He ate. Made a good go of it.

I took it away not wanting to have him make himself sick again, but his eyes looked brighter. I can't say how, but although he was seriously ignoring me, he was glancing up and around a little more. His ears even looked pinker.

He flattened down again and with his eyes open he signified he was done with the visit.

I will get my call in the morning and I will spend the day puttering, setting up the new cat pan, prepping for where he will be hanging out when I don't want to hang out and putting out my cowboy boots for the evening's target practice from him.

Early Call This Morning

Of course I freaked when the phone rang a little after 8.

All the news was good. He even stinked up his cage so he has eliminated through elimination the stuff he is supposed to.

He also threw up his food. That sounds awful, but he does that a lot. I think it is boredom. He chews on his dry food like I do potato chips. He is smart enough to barf it back. I gain weight and get migraines!

I was telling a friend online how, although my cat is not at all affectionate, occasionally demanding of attention, he has short interactions with me. He and I will check in. I hear him do a little mmmww under his breath and I say hi. He is sleeping in a corner too long and I will call out "Doood!" and he looks up, answers and goes back to sleep. He runs into my foot while I am sitting in a chair and rubs it. He HATES me to pick him up or pet him. It is ALL on his terms.

At night RIGHT about the time I doze off, he will plop himself on my tummy and indulge in quality petting. About five minutes and he is off.

When he first was getting well from the meds, he started falling asleep on me. THAT was so amazing! Living with a cat for 10 years that would LEAP on and leap off my chest (never my lap. That may have been partially due to his former 18 pound weight) for his own reward, actually being peaceful and happy enough to sleep with me, heartbeat to heartbeat. . .

I am going to bring a little cheese stick for him this afternoon. He has been called playful. That means I might wear my long sleeved shirt. We are not actively seeking bites or scratches while he still glows in the dark, but I bet he may want to express a bit of displeasure with his recent incarceration.

FUR-BALL!

The 4ish report was glowing. Biggest news was a furball. yippee.

Not a danged thing they could come up with to call news. I swear, I am pumping her but we agree, tomorrow around 3, we get to look in and have a visit.

I REALLY MISS HIM!

4:45...You All Will Soon Get Bored, I KNOW. . .

So the car is going to be fixed (yes the warranty is good) first thing in the 100 degree morning. I have a free trolley that runs by my house and about half a block from the shop so I can get it with ease as long as it is earlyish.

Couldn't wait any longer and called the Vet hospital.

He is now officially a kitty grump. She said he is quite the hisser. Every time she opens the cage to get in or out he has an opinion. But he has not resorted to physical violence! She is unscathed.

He urinated just fine and she will have her wonder poop tonight! He was always good at that!

It seems his cell mate, the little girl, is indeed curious but he wants NOTHING to do with her. (I just bet it would be different if they took her away . . . he seems prone to separation anxiety. LOUD mournful cries when the neighborhood wanders depart, but not so much when they are there.

So.

This is a little like watching paint dry.

Speaking of paint, I suppose there is no excuse not to get a big portrait started now. I have literally nothing else to do!

4:15 and all is well. . .

I just got the call from the office and he is back awake, and they are going to give him some dry food and a bit of his cheap Friskies!

(He is NOT a picky eater, but when he got sick, he didn't eat. I started him on junk food and he loves the pate as a treat when I would give him his meds. So I threw a couple of cans of the usual in a baggie.)

Not much.

She says she will call tomorrow before 10 to see how his appetite is and what the post procedure effects are.

HOLY COW! Theoretically, I have a normal healthy cat after this! I am tearing up trying to remember what NORMAL was!

HEEBIES!

I was watching the Dude, and absolutely thrilled that he was not looking uncomfortable, did not throw up last night and really seems so good, if a little skinnier than I hoped, when tonight I saw the first sign of his heebie jeebies return...

He was kicking his feet, which he was doing a little, but the foot fight was a definite FULL BLOWN symptom... and today he did his little backflip, that starts this older video off...

BUT he is quiet, doesn't yell or hiss at me. He eats his food and his extra wet food.

WE ARE SO CLOSE and I am really happy to see him not getting sick!

FIRST Trip Away in a Year...

Well, nearly.

Tomorrow, with no need to sit and stare at him I am heading out on an overnight!

It is odd, leaving him alone, but honestly, just this week, I have been wondering if I had him a little over medicated. I swear, I can't tell you how happy he was looking this week.

I do notice his back, behind his slightly bony hips is a bit greasy. It used to look like he couldn't groom back there. He would hate for me to pat back that far on his back, but when the meds kicked in, he was much more docile. Off meds he just seems spunky! He has been chasing my heels and talking up a storm! He asks for food, but doesn't seem unusually hungry or thirsty. He has been laying around but less sleepy! It is odd that making him sicker seems to have made him happier. He lolls around on his back, purrs like mad and has a much brighter personality than recently.

I am hoping that the act of being on medication, although it helps his health might actually not making everything so good . . . Like when I was a kid, I had allergies. The meds made me function, as in not sneezing on everyone, but I was seriously dopey! Like that!!

So we shall give a fuller report when I return to see what a couple of days have produced.

Wish us all luck!

Good Bye To the Bottle. Can Your Rescue Use It?

For close to two years these little bottles have been keeping the Dude from crawling the walls, yo-yo-ing his weight up and down and allowing him to find a good life. Tonight will be his last dose if all goes well.

The nifty thing about this process is that it only kills cells that make thyroid hormone. The gland that is supposed to is regulated elsewhere and when the tumor cells start going crazy, spewing out the stuff, the gland is told to shut down. Because it goes dormant, we regulate the amount in his system with this drug. And it works well.

For two weeks ahead, we want the bad cells to do their worst! The radioactive stuff seeks ONLY these kinds of cells and chews them up. Also, just in case ANY of the normal cells are functioning, we try to drive them way underground by the sensors in the pituitary shutting the spigot off hard because of all the yuck from the bad guys. We want ALL of the medicine out of the system so the treatment can do its worst.

After the three hot days, when the cat is actively radioactive, before the half lives start breaking the iodine down, the levels will drop as the treatment clears out. By the time the bad cells are gone, the nuclear missiles are too. When the all clear sounds, the dormant gland will be awakened again and there may be a few odd months of him starting to regulate his own levels.

They tell me not to panic for three months. There is no exact prediction, but way into the 90%'s of the cats come out with perfectly normal thyroids. It is rare that a healthy thyroid is damaged by the process. Apparently if the thyroid comes out underfunctional. (hypo) it was already damaged for some other reason. We x-rayed him to be sure no physical abnormality kept him from having it work.

Fingers crossed I will no longer need this half bottle again!

I am going to send this post to as many local cat rescues as I can. This is a good three or four months of normal for a rescuer who has a sick kitty and can use a little help.

IF any of you know a rescue that needs this, drop me a line and we can meet up when my vet says The Dude is good to go. All the generous people that have helped me needs a bit of passing it forward. THANK YOU ALL.

A Change of Venue

Ever get a sort of sinking feeling?

Well, I had talked to the Radiocat people and was starting to get MORE confused than calmed. I had talked to my vet about a conflict wherein her "Instructions to Professionals" indicated a two week "flush" so the meds would no longer mask the active irregular cells, so the Radioactive iodine would find all of the nasty stuff, but she was supposed to send along a one week clean test. LOTS of tests!

I got a paper that said four days before we scheduled, we went off the meds. That is all. My vet (the wonderful Dr. Delac) had left at least two messages with them that they had not replied to. I had also waited for four days at one point to get information.

Every time I talked to Radiocat, I got too much information. The first time I felt like I had a lot of info, but had missed the window of opportunity by a day. The tests would not be done in time and I had to wait for a month until the doctors came to town. Then it was two more weeks. Then it was the tests that we SHOULD have.

I had tried to explain that he had gotten very ill when I had a bad bottle of medication... she kept thinking that his levels were topping out and that there must have been SOME medicine. Radiocat kept reinforcing that they could only do the maximum amount. IF it was not enough, The dude might need to be treated again.

Well, there are a lot of issues but yesterday, when I DID talk to her, I was even more confused. The tests were due back today and the Doc was going to send them over. During my conversation, among the contradictions and odd replies to my questions (such as how come my paperwork said four days, hers said two weeks off meds?) explaining that the process was personalized for EACH cat. And her explanation of my cat (who she assumed was TOPPING out the numbers) would be just fine with a few days off meds... I SUDDENLY realized that early in this quest to repair my dude, I had talked to the ONE other local radio-oncology vet's office in town. The girl was very helpful and I LIKED what she had told me but I was not sure what she was saying.

So, I looked it up again!

EVERYTHING I heard sounded completely understandable, I liked knowing the place was there all the time, not just once a month... or month and a half.

So I took my papers and went over.

I talked to the doctor who would administer the treatment, toured the whole place, liked very much what I saw!

So.... we have moved it back ONE week. Again, I timed it off, but we will have a two week flush and fix him up on August 29...

I just feel better!

Hyper Thyroid.

Long time ago, I heard about this disorder when a former roommate had an old girl with the problem. She was a very grumpy bony little old lady.

I had to treat her with the TRANS DERMAL gel. Morning and evening... first you had to catch her.... then rub the TINIEST amount of Vaseline stuff in her ears. I really had no idea what it was.

Then when the Dude got it, I woke up.

I am going to ramble. I would really appreciate anyone who could do it more clearly, jumping in and giving me some corrections, but here goes:

The thyroid is sort of the gas pedal in the body. It tells all the other systems how fast or slow to run. If it is sending out too little hormone, you get fat, bad slow and bad hair.

If it is too much, everything makes you crazy. Much like me on coffee, hyperthyroid can give a cat upset tummy - it is always hungry, but it burns it up too fast too - intolerance to heat which is bad as I am cheap so I keep the house very warm in the summer. It ramps up the heart, the kidneys . . you name it, it can go hyper! Old cats get it a lot.

The gland that does the work gets whacked out and works too hard. Some of the cells get big and sloppy and take over the whole process. Much like the normal guys in social situations, the fat sloppy hyper cells go amok and the sane ones (notified that there is WAY TOO MUCH thyroid in the system by the pituitary gland) hide from sight, laying low, not wanting to be involved. But they are still there but seriously chilling.

Three ways to treat it are:

By meds. It basically negates all the hormones. My cat is really very easy compared to my old friend. He is not HAPPY but hardly protests and even reminds me to get up and NOT to go to bed too early without his treat (an that ugly thing I shove in his mouth too.) They have pills and plungers and rubs and it is all pretty effective really. The symptoms go way back, the weight goes up and they look real good on the outside. BUT they are not cured. The meds put a lot of wear and tear on these organs too.

Surgery. I guess now that they have micro stuff, it might be better, but a cat is a small body and it needs anesthesia and cutting open and recovery. All that and HOPING they got the right stuff. Lots of cats have other issues and it is always risky working on sick cats or even sick people. This is sort of a last resort and I have heard some sad tales.

RADIATION (spooky music please!)

My vet has recommended Radiocat which is a franchise. It has a procedure that is really amazingly simple with a nearly unbelievable success rate.

Remember back in the Japan earthquake they were giving everyone iodine? Thyroids and iodine have a very wonderful relationship. Our salt had iodine in it as a good thing. Keeping everything regular as it were. Apparently thyroids attract the stuff. The idea was to jam tons on NON radioactive iodine in and fill up the places the bad stuff would go - they are just that tight!

It also seems that the Radioactive stuff is a sizzling hot shot. Where it lands it fries. As with all radioactive stuff it moves fast and dies young. SO the idea is:

Shoot a specific amount of the isotope into the system to have it go home to the tissue that makes the thyroid hormone. As the good guys are quietly hibernating keeping out of the damage caused by the screwed up cells, by the time the I131 had burned the intruders out, the healthy tissue comes back to work in a clear clean environment. Both the iodine and the bad cells are gone. The pituitary notices the levels going back down and calls the normal cells get back to work. With a little settling in everything should be up and running fine in a month or so!

ALL (and I have looked real hard for bad stories) of the info I read on it is really good. The potential damage is so small, and the damage itself is much LESS nasty (hypothyroid... the fat cat?) and much more easy to manage.

Feel free to comment and correct. I have a lot of fun trying to make sense of complicated things so I may be having TOO much fun and not really understanding it.

The called me back and I missed the call, so we will probably NOT get a slot until August. Hopefully that make it PAID IN FULL . . . .