Lots of Help Recoveringby Angie

Fri
8 May 2009
5:05 pm
1

Hi, everyone – I’m alive!  Recovery is kind of lame, but going well.  Kathy has spent the week with us, and has done her best to wait on me hand and foot.  Jim has been wonderfully attentive, too.  I feel like a very lazy princess.  My most enthusiastic exercise comes from a couple of trips up and down the stairs each day.

Jaquie is enjoying the relaxed atmosphere, and has been very affectionate, as usual.  We were a little worried, before the surgery, about what to do with her at night – she usually lies on Jim as we are falling asleep, then migrates to some part of me during the night, but it is pretty uncomfortable to have a cat sprawled on your stomach or legs when you have an incision to worry about.  Surprisingly enough, she must have been listening to our conversation about it, or else noticed a difference in my sleeping habits:  she now lies on Jim for a while but, of her own accord, she now often spends the rest of the night on the end of the bed or the floor.  We have such a smart, sweet cat!

I have a post-op appointment next Monday, where they will check me out and make sure everything looks good.  No steri-strips for them to examine – just stitches on the inside and super glue on the outside, this time!  Things look good to me, so far, so I’m sure we’ll have good news next week.  We’ll keep you posted.

Kitty on the Mendby Angie

Tue
7 Apr 2009
4:04 pm
2

Jaquie’s lab results came back with mostly very good news:  No feline leukemia or AIDS, no thyroid problems.  Most everything was normal except for elevated liver enzymes and slight anemia.  It looks like something made her a little sick, and then not eating for so long and becoming dehydrated just compounded the problem.  I took her back in today for a 2nd round of the same injection as yesterday, and bought all new food to replace the old stuff.

Besides being irritated at having to go back to the vet, have another injection, and ride around in her carrier again – in the RAIN, no less – Jaquie is already looking more normal.  I’m so relieved!

Trip to the Vetby Angie

Mon
6 Apr 2009
4:04 pm
0

Jaqueline has had a very trying day.  We looked online last night and found a place called Altamont Cat Hospital.  Besides being only a two minute drive away, it had several high reviews online.  I called them first thing this morning and made an appointment for 10:40 – their earliest available.  I left a message for Jim telling him when I was heading over, then had the unenviable task of forcing Jaquie into her carrier.  She cried during the entire drive.

After filling out some forms, the nurse took me and the little patient back to an exam room.  Jaquie was weighed, her teeth examined, and her ears and eyes explored.  The nurse asked me several questions, then left us alone while she reported to the doctor.  Dr. Matthews came in next; she poked and prodded and rubbed and stretched, as she discussed her concerns and possible prognoses with me.  She looked relieved when I agreed to the tests and initial therapies she felt were necessary.

First was a blood test, requiring a small spot of skin on Jaquie’s neck to be shaved.  She actually had to be poked twice, because the first draw “hyper-coagulated” almost as soon as it was out, and was rendered unusable.  I have no idea what that might indicate, and Dr. Matthews either wasn’t forthcoming or simply didn’t know either.  Then came x-rays, which didn’t turn up anything definite.  Next was the terribly insulting thermometer, with a perfectly normal reading.

Last of all was something to help her begin to feel better right away:  because Jaquie is very dehydrated, they gave her a subcutaneous injection of fluids, with a few medications mixed in (antibiotics, and some Zofran to help pique her appetite).  It took a long time, but Jim showed up at that point and Dr. Matthews was able to explain what they were injecting and show him the x-rays and everything.  We finished up, brought Jaquie home, and gave her some of the special “anorexic diet” food that the vet sent with us, of which she is getting about a teaspoon an hour.

It was quite an ordeal but, once home, I really think it was worth it – she has been eating the new food quite willingly, and already seems more perky.  We’ll know more difinitevely when the lab results come back tomorrow or the next day, but so far it seems that she’s on the mend.

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Skinny Kittyby Angie

Sun
5 Apr 2009
9:04 am
1

Last night, Jon (who is staying over for Conference weekend) mentioned that Jaquie was looking a little thin, and I was inclined to agree.  When Jim and I were upstairs later, getting ready for bed, the subject came up again.  We had noticed that she had missed some easy jumps in the last week or so (scraping up my leg on one of them), and that she has seemed an odd combination of physically placid but more “talkative” than normal.  None of these individual symptoms had seemed alarming, but when we began to consider them together, we started to worry.

We wondered if she was hungry, but Jim said he had checked before coming upstairs and her food dish was full.  Then he asked me when was the last time I actually put food in her bowl.  When I answered, “Over a week ago, I think,” his eyes went wide with concern.  He couldn’t remember the last time he had filled her dish, either.  He thought I had been doing it, while I thought he had.  This, apparently, is the downside to the whoever-notices-it-empty-fills-it system.

I gave her a couple of treats I keep in our room that she adores, and she gobbled them up.  They were hard, so that ruled out anything wrong with her teeth.  Then Jim took her downstairs to examine the food dish in question.  Apparently, some of the hard food had gotten wet and was clumped, so he dumped it all out, and gave her all new food and water.  She wasn’t much interested in the new food either, though.  He then offered her some tuna, and she was willing to eat a little of that – not entirely encouraging, however, since she’s usually willing to eat a lot of tuna.

Poor thing – she must have just been starving for a week!  She had a little more tuna with some dry food mixed in this morning.  I’m just hoping that the wet, old food was the culprit and that she’ll bounce back quickly.

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Adoptive Couple Interviewby Angie

Fri
15 Aug 2008
1:08 pm
3

Today was the next step in our adoption process:  Jean came to our home and had an interview with both of us together.  We also gave her a tour of our condo and introduced her to Jaquie.  We did a preliminary safety checklist, and she talked about what sorts of things we need to take care of now, versus what we need to be prepared to do around the time of placement (i.e., buying a second fire extinguisher versus installing a baby gate on the stairs).  We’ll be meeting with her again sometime in October.

We have Jim’s interview and some paperwork left to do, and also the project that is most nerve-wracking of all (to me): our photo collage.  We need to put together several scrapbook-ish pages of pictures with fun captions and stuff.  Unfortunately, neither of us are very concientious photographers, so we have very few from the last five years.  If any of you happen to have pictures with us in them and would be willing to mail/email us a copy, we’d really appreciate it!

Recovering from surgeryby Angie

Mon
2 Jun 2008
2:06 pm
1

Thank you, everybody, for your prayers and well-wishes for us since my surgery.  I am doing very well and hope to be back to normal in a couple more weeks.  I have been very well taken care of:  My wonderful, adorable, thoughtful husband has been at my beck and call as much as possible since I got home from the hospital.  He and Jon spent a large portion of their Memorial weekend entertaining me (playing “Secret of Mana”My \ with me for hours on end).  JaquieMy mother-in-law, Kathy, visited for a week to keep our house running smoothly.  I received phone calls and visits from wonderful friends in my ward and from family members all over the country (thanks, Audrey!).  I even had my own pet therapist on hand: Jaquie wisely stayed off my lap, but spent long hours curled up next to me on the couch or my bed.

Getting around the house is still a little difficult because of the incision (for those ladies who have had a C-section, you probably know what I mean), and I can’t carry very much or drive yet, but I’m certainly improving.  My doctor called when she received the lab results on the cysts they removed to report that everything was benign – hooray!!  My post-op appointment is next Tuesday, so if there is anything else interesting to relate, I’ll keep the blog posted.

St. Mikulás Dayby Angie

Thu
6 Dec 2007
10:12 pm
1

ShoesJaquie and her new mouseSt. Mikulás visited our house and – since we have been very good children – left our shoes full of presents! We got DVDs and popcorn and hot chocolate and candy, and Jaquie got new toys that she adores. Her favorite is a set of three catnip mice – Jim detached one little mouse from the cardboard and she went crazy playing with it, and a few minutes later was trying to get the other two mice out of his shoe, where he had set them aside! We got a picture of her attacking the mouse, but when we tried to get a video of it, she stopped and walked away in a huff.

We had our Mikulás Feast last night because tonight we had choir rehearsal. I made cider and soft ginger cookies to share with everyone, in honor of it being St. Mikulás Day, and we got to tell everyone about the Hoffmans’ traditions and background. Everybody was pleased with the treats and very grateful, and I enjoyed doing it but…note to self: don’t try cooking big meals and treats for 60 people two days in a row. I am exhausted, and my poor kitchen looks like a whirlwind waltzed through it.