Got all the Paperwork.

Waiting is the hard part.

I have all the paperwork. The list of things we have to do before the procedure. The stuff they sent to the doctor.

This is going to be very boring from here on in.


I may have to start remembering stories to tell about the dude. NOW that he is back in good health, he is back to his normal, staring, waiting and sleeping. That is pretty much it!

I will try to snap a good race around the living room next time he tries one. He likes to do laps... across the vertical blinds, various chairs and often into the laundry area.... Try to keep the camera handy.

A Phone Call

While I was trying to take an interesting movie of him (MOSTLY he just stares at me!!) I got a call from Radiocat.

This is all I could come up with:

I have dried my eyes and am sane again.

Learned more than I needed and suddenly got all freaked. IF there is any chance he comes out sicker than he went in (and he is really healthy right now!) I will never forgive myself.

I got it clarified that the kidneys and the thyroid are hooked up. That is why the vet kept asking about his litter box habits . . . which are very GOOD right now! Holy cow, you would think I had a dog! But it turns out that his set back had him at levels that might hint at kidney involvement. After talking me down, she explained that IF there is any possibility that the medication that MASKS kidney issues is doing so, they will suggest NOT doing the procedure.

I guess that is all I can ask.

If they care enough to tell you NOT to do it if it is not going to help, I guess they are the right people.

We need to start the first big round of tests. Xrays, full blood panel and such. They mentioned they may need two T levels that would mean being off his meds for 2 weeks, but I am sort of wary. He gets a bit freaky when he is sick and I don't want him any sicker than he needs to be!

So August 23 at 10! We are on, and starting the ball rolling!

Slow day for the cat but did a good deed.

I stopped by the Animal Hospital this week and nobody has gotten back to the vet. I don't actually know the going rate for the blood work and x-rays needed for the procedure, but that is not as imminent as I wish. The Dude has to go cold turkey on the drugs for a week and we need a full check up BEFORE that.

Aug. 9 or 16 are all we have. BUT it will be at 10!

In the lull, I have been up to my neck in dogs again. I am learning how to use my digital tablet so I can illustrate a children's book for YET ANOTHER charity. I have 3 or four of the 20 or so pictures done. Perfect way to kill time when there is nothing else to do . . . . .

But a bit of good work came my way.

This is a memorial for a friend to give to a great woman who fostered this very ill Toy Fox Terrier through her final days. It is always warming to do any little bit.

If you want to donate to me, you know how to click . . . but if you prefer dogs - as you are very welcome to do - have a click to the group that helped this little lady.

Amazing Tales...

I left Colorado in 1980, I am pretty sure. Of course I was all grown up and living my own life. Had traveled as a performing puppetteer and missed my 10th high school reunion, so most of my friends were new. All Denver adults, not my Littleton kid friends.

Flashback via Facebook!

The most amazing thing is happening because of my cat!!!

Just this week one of my best high school pals dropped into my fundraising site to help out and tonight, an even more amazing event! My very best girlfriend from Junior High, as I recall, gave me a donation.

I remember being a very odd little girl, I tended to get along better with friend's parents sometimes. Her mother was a little older than mine and I really remember how cool the old music her mom played in the house was! The old movies I loved were stuff we could talk about, much to the dismay of my friend who was learning how to make curls on rollers!

Wow, how a little event on the internet can make your brain FLY back in time.....

Back to your regularly scheduled story......

The dude was boring today. He acted exactly like a cat!

I tried to take some better movies of him on my new cell phone, but he was very dull. Getting fatter and being healthy for the procedure, but his usual boring, staring, unsettling self.

All is well.

The Sacrifice

When you go to the radiation therapy, you are asked to bring something of comfort of the cat that will be destroyed (because it will be radioactive!)

A bit oxymoron, as how hard it is to bring something beloved and comforting that will never be seen again. But this is a no-brainer.

The Dude has NEVER destroyed a stitch of fabric or furniture from his youth (socks - yes, sofas -no) because a sisal scratch post was all I ever got him. This particular configuration has always been a favorite, in fact this is his fourth one.

IF I find another in a pet store, it will be replaced. It has hung along looking worse and worse because I have NOT seen any. A new post-style has been donated by my boyfriend, but actually what the Dude loves is sprawling across it and scratching it while he reclines . . . What a slacker!

High vs. Low Tech.

I have twice tried to pass out a few cards to friends that have a link to the donation site because of my experiments with high technology:

I admit it! I do not have clue how this thing works on smart phones and devices... but if YOU do, see if this works to bring you over to the donation page.

Still experimenting!

But..... both of my friends took the card and handed me cash toward my cat's repair. Who would have figured the fastest way to low tech cash was a phone app that nobody knows how to use!

Busy day running around so tomorrow will have a few more notes and stories. Thanks for reading!

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 . . . .