Erik

[cellio]

I talked with the surgeon. Erik is not coming home tonight. Probably tomorrow.

Biopsy report: severe cholangial hepatitis, severe pancreatitis, and by the way they found e coli in his gallbladder but IIUC the drugs they're giving him are knocking that down. Usually you starve e coli, he said, but (in his words) "we need to keep pushing the groceries into him".

White blood cell count is normal. He's anemic, but apparently that's normal given his condition. (I don't know if that means normal for this surgery, normal for one of the conditions he has, or what.)

He said probably the way to treat the pancreatitis is with steroids, but that can't start until he's healed up from the surgery. There's nothing we can do right now.

He was already being treated for the hepatitis; dunno if there's a dosage change coming or what. I need to review all of this with his regular vet, of course.

He declined to make a call on prognosis for all of this.

Meanwhile, I've talked with my manager about ways to accommodate the need for feedings every six hours (for a week or so). I'd been assuming mid-day runs home, but asked optimistically about taking over a small unused room and just bringing him in with me. (Probably won't work, but we need to ask the powers that be.) He suggested working half-days from home; I'll have to see if I can make that work.

Comments

[rani23.livejournal.com]

Aw man. I hope the little guy is OK. My fingers are crossed.

[patsmor.livejournal.com]

We're pulling for both of you -- and your pocketbook!

[cellio]

and your pocketbook!

Yeah, that too. I'm glad the new corporate overlords bribed me to stick around for a while; that definitely helps.

[cellio]

Thanks. You and me both.

[dagonell.livejournal.com]

You have my sympathy, I will be sending healing energy to Eric.
-- Dagonell

[amergina.livejournal.com]

aww. *hugs* to you and Erik. May he get better soon!

[woodwindy.livejournal.com]

I'm thinking about you and the kitty, and keeping my fingers crossed. Hope he bounces back soon!

[filkerdave.livejournal.com]

Good luck thoughts and hugs

[patsmor.livejournal.com]

I understand precisely -- Drake's put a new line item on my budget...

[ironangel]

aww, jeez. *skritchies* for the kitty and *hugs* for you. I know how stressful a sick/injured pet can be :(

[dr-zrfq.livejournal.com]

**more hugs for you and skritches for Erik**

[paquerette.livejournal.com]

Oh, poor kitty! I hope he's perking (purr-king?) up soon.

[jeannegrrl.livejournal.com]

I hope your furry son gets better soon

[steven.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry. I know how stressful and heartbreaking these things are. Our younger cat had a nasty battle with pancreatitis; it required him to be on an IV for a few hours a day for several days. I'm glad the doctors seem to have pinpointed the problems. Try to stay positive about things for now.

[kmanista.livejournal.com]

Just wanted to let you know we're thinking of you and Erik and hope he comes home happy and healthy soon.

Also - if worst comes to worst - I live near you and am home all day, we could work something out. Just in case.

[cellio]

Also - if worst comes to worst - I live near you and am home all day, we could work something out. Just in case.

Wow, thanks! I got approval from all the relevant people to try the experiment of bringing him to work. If that doesn't work out, I'll talk with you about what's involved and you can decide if you're still up for this. (He has to get fed through a feeding tube right now, so it's not as simple as just putting a bowl of food down.)

(For any coworkers who are reading this and saying "WTF?" -- I'll be using the proto-shower, which isn't ready for its intended use anyway. So there's no carpet in there to retain cat hair that would pose allergy problems, and the door will stay shut while he's in there. And if this poses any problems, like he makes noise that bothers the people next door, we'll declare this a failed experiment.)

[indigodove.livejournal.com]

I hope this is soon behind both of you, and he's back to normal. Let us know if we can help!

[sekhmets-song.livejournal.com]

Way cool that the powers that be at your job are willing to help you out on this. I hope the experiment works!
We are pulling for you and Erik (pocketbook and health, respectively). Our kitties (save one) are getting way up there in years and that can make it a bit of a challenge. Luckily, so far (knock wood!), nothing major has gone wrong with them, but my mother is dealing with endcare for one of my childhood (okay, teenhood) kitties right now and it is really rough on her. He responds to therapy, but never gets to completely well. She hates to continue to put him through the IV, cortisone, vet trauma routine, but doesn't want to give up on him. It's rough, for sure.
My thoughts are with you and Erik for a speedy and complete recovery!

[chaos-wrangler.livejournal.com]

*hugs* & *sympathy*

[chaiya.livejournal.com]

Ooof. *hugs* Good luck, kitty!

[cellio]

Thanks.

[cellio]

Thanks. I hope so too! And I'm glad to hear that Mikey's home and presumably happy.

[cellio]

Thanks. So do I -- it's sure lonely without him. (Yes, there are two other cats, but each occupies a unique niche and the absence is noticable.)

[cellio]

Thanks.

[cellio]

Thanks.

[cellio]

Thanks.

[cellio]

Thanks. (*groan* :-) )

[cellio]

Thanks.

[cellio]

Thanks. Wow, a few hours a day sounds rough. I had friends whose cat had kidney problems and they had to "water the cat" (as they put it) each night, but only for about an hour.

[cellio]

Yeah, so do I. Thanks for the offer of help!

[cellio]

Thanks.

Way cool that the powers that be at your job are willing to help you out on this.

I was pleasantly surprised. I thought for sure I was going to be looking at alternate schedules or something.

I'm glad your kitties are doing well so far. I'm sorry about your teenhood cat (and your mom).

[cellio]

Thanks.

[cellio]

Thanks.

[jhayman.livejournal.com]

Hopefully somebody explained that hepatitis=liver inflammation, in this case resulting from blocked bile duct/gall bladder?

Anyway, best of luck to little Eric. If he's come this far, he's a tough little guy.

[cellio]

He previously had a diagnosis of "possible cholangial hepatitis" (based on previous bloodwork and an ultrasound). There are no medical bad consequences of treating it even if he doesn't have it, so we've been treating it. Today was the first time I heard an adjective like "severe", so I'm really hoping that's an acute condition brought on by the problem with his bile duct (now fixed).

Anyway, best of luck to little Eric. If he's come this far, he's a tough little guy.

Thanks. Yeah, he must be a tough little guy. And yet everyone at the clinic who's talked with me has commented on how well-behaved and affectionate he is, even through this. When I saw him (oh so briefly) last night he looked thoroughly dejected, but maybe being carried around by unfamiliar people does that. I think being back home will be a help for him as well as for me, so I hope that's soon.

[profane-stencil.livejournal.com]

I can barely imagine how tough this must be for all involved. I'm hoping that someday soon, this will just be a really good story of transcending adversity.

[cellio]

Thank you. "A really good story of transcending adversity" would be an excellent outcome; graat way to phrase it!

[figmo.livejournal.com]

Good luck and many *hugs* from here.

[ralphmelton.livejournal.com]

Oh man. I'm so sorry to hear this.

I have cats too...

[sfromriverdale.livejournal.com]

I've had cats too and this sound scarey but do-able. Believe it or not it doesn't sound fatal. In other words there is a light at the end of this tunnel. It will be very taxing on your purse indeed, and you'll spend many hour by little Eriks side but he will pull through. I wouldn't bring him to work. the travel will be too stressing for him and he'll get sicker. do the half days from home it will work better you and for Erik. I've had a similar situation recently when my daisy got really sick really fast after her teeth were cleaned. I knew it was and infection and all I could do was get her to take her antibiotics, get her to eat, and stay by her side. She was so sick I really thought I was going to loose her that very night, but if I took her to an animal emergency room the stress would have mader her even worse. So I just stayed with her through the night, got her to eat her medicine, eat food that didn't hurt her painful gums and by the next night she was doing much better. He sounds like he'll get through this even though this is all very scary. You'll see, but in the mean time I'll be praying for you.

[cellio]

Thanks.

[cellio]

Thanks. I haven't talked to a vet since then, but I was able to bring him home tonight so that's an improvement!

Re: I have cats too...

[cellio]

Thanks for the encouragement. He seems a lot better tonight than when I saw him Monday, so I have hopes that things will be back to normal before too long.

I'm going to try taking him to work tomorrow and judge from there. The commute is 15 minutes by car, which shouldn't be too bad (the trip from the clinic was about 25 minutes and he didn't complain). I think periodic human contact in a strange place might beat being left alone at home all day (isolated from the other cats for safety), but I won't know until I try it. If it seems to be going badly I'll take him home mid-day.

Working from home is doable but somewhat challenging, and we're in the middle of a release cycle right now. But we can do this a day at a time; Friday is a short day anyway because of Shabbat, so I might be able to just leave him at home then, and then there's the whole weekend. Things could be very different by Monday.

I'm glad Daisy pulled through. That must have been scary!

Re: I have cats too...

[sfromriverdale.livejournal.com]

It was. I prayed really hard for her that night. Thank You God that she was alright. She is only 9 and I'm not ready for her to die yet.