(no subject)
Jun. 30th, 2004 12:17 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
senoritafishI think an album of Viennese waltzes this morning is just the ticket. Soothing and yet somehow distant and not as emotional as some of the things I've been listening to lately. The Blue Danube makes me think of the scenes from 2001: A Space Odyssey. They must've gotten the year wrong. Here we are nearly halfway in time to the sequel (2010) and we're barely any farther than when the movie was made.
I talked to the vet. She says he seems to be feeling better and is up and moving around, now that he is on some antibiotics and had a saline drip yesterday. There was some blood in his urine, as I suspected, and the beginnings of kidney problems, which we already knew about. He has a high white cell count, which could be caused by infection, but they also elevate in the presence of lymphoma. The x-ray confirmed he has two masses in his abdomen. She didn't know if he'd eaten anything.
She told me the next step, if we want to, is performing an ultrasound and a fine needle biopsy. If the results confirm cancer, she could refer me to an oncologist. She offered to phone back with an estimate. I thanked her and hung up.
I ran into ML in the bathroom. After some initial small talk, I asked how much she had spent when her cat Bud was ill, and she had gotten chemotherapy for him. She said over the course of a year, she had spent $1800 dollars, and she didn't think he had very good quality of life during that time. She and IT (her husband) had elected not to follow the same path when two more of their cats became ill, instead opting for loving last days at home. We were both in tears by that time, and we hugged. I apologized for making her cry, and she told me it was ok, as she's known Bob almost as long as I have. She said she would tell IT (who used to be my roommate, until they moved in together, and knows Bob well too) and they would both be sending good thoughts.
The vet's receptionist just called with the estimate for the ultrasound/biopsy. It's $522. It would be a couple of days until they can schedule it, and he can come home in the meantime. I have to call back by 4:00pm with a decision.
A decision to spend money to see if I have to make another, harder decision.
I've never had to do this before. It's hard.
In the meantime, I'm going to do a little reading on crosstab queries, to figure out how to run them. I not sure how I'm going to combine all my fish landings from different sources...
I talked to the vet. She says he seems to be feeling better and is up and moving around, now that he is on some antibiotics and had a saline drip yesterday. There was some blood in his urine, as I suspected, and the beginnings of kidney problems, which we already knew about. He has a high white cell count, which could be caused by infection, but they also elevate in the presence of lymphoma. The x-ray confirmed he has two masses in his abdomen. She didn't know if he'd eaten anything.
She told me the next step, if we want to, is performing an ultrasound and a fine needle biopsy. If the results confirm cancer, she could refer me to an oncologist. She offered to phone back with an estimate. I thanked her and hung up.
I ran into ML in the bathroom. After some initial small talk, I asked how much she had spent when her cat Bud was ill, and she had gotten chemotherapy for him. She said over the course of a year, she had spent $1800 dollars, and she didn't think he had very good quality of life during that time. She and IT (her husband) had elected not to follow the same path when two more of their cats became ill, instead opting for loving last days at home. We were both in tears by that time, and we hugged. I apologized for making her cry, and she told me it was ok, as she's known Bob almost as long as I have. She said she would tell IT (who used to be my roommate, until they moved in together, and knows Bob well too) and they would both be sending good thoughts.
The vet's receptionist just called with the estimate for the ultrasound/biopsy. It's $522. It would be a couple of days until they can schedule it, and he can come home in the meantime. I have to call back by 4:00pm with a decision.
A decision to spend money to see if I have to make another, harder decision.
I've never had to do this before. It's hard.
In the meantime, I'm going to do a little reading on crosstab queries, to figure out how to run them. I not sure how I'm going to combine all my fish landings from different sources...
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no subject
Date: 2004-06-30 08:34 pm (UTC)If it IS cancer, then at least you know. I would want to know this, even if I decided not to treat him and let him live as long as he can with me, with a higher quality of life without the chemo.
It's up to you, of course.
Keep me up-to-date.
no subject
Date: 2004-07-01 11:08 am (UTC)He’s home right now, resting in his cupboard. This morning he was out and moving around, and purring when I scratched him, so I think he is feeling a little better. We’ll keep him here where he’s loved, and not in a sterile metal vet’s cage, as long as we can keep him comfortable. I'm trying to get him treats to eat. I’m going to have VT bring back a few extra fresh sardines from the docks to try and tempt him, and ML suggested fresh tuna yesterday.
Sigh. I've done a lot of crying the last couple of days.