Blessed D

I am preparing myself.

Miss D spent the entire day at the vet, who, with some detective work and the right tests seems to have narrowed down what might be ailing her.  She believes it will be digestive lymphoma, but the other possible culprit---bacterial enteritis.

She ordered the blood tests done 8 months ago, from the other vet, and those did show high lymphocytes, low red blood cells, but I was not told.  Maybe they considered the numbers low normal.  This year, however, her packed red cell count was just 19, and she said if she hydrated Miss D, it would have brought it down to probably 14. Normal is 45.  She's anemic.  She also has high lymphocytes.

Her X-rays were perfect, the vet said. Otherwise, her bloodwork is perfect, she said.  She retested her for FIV/Felk and she's negative for both.  The stool sample I took, total liquid diarrhea---negative for parasites and bacteria.

She weighs 5.5 lbs, so she's not lost too much weight. She's always hovered around 6 to 6.5 lbs.

But she was badly dehydrated, from her latest severe diarrheal episode.  The vet sent in a test to a lab, will have results tomorrow, something about the lymphocytes shape, to see if lymphoma is likely.  It is very difficult to diagnose and mimics other bowel inflammations to boot, making it even harder.

I read about lymphomas today, some of them.  Some can be traced to a single abnormal cell because after that, all the lymphocytes are descendants of that one cell and will be its clone.  Cats can become anemic quickly because they cycle red blood cells through much faster than other animals.  I read that too.

The numbers of lymphomas in cats are decreasing because there are fewer and fewer cases of FIV and Felk, which can cause lymphomas, in places other than the digestive tract.  Most digestive tract lymphomas in cats are not related to being positive for FIV or Felk.  Miss Daisy is negative for those diseases.

They were going to keep her overnight, but in the end, I called and said I wanted to bring her home.  They said "Come get her."  So I rushed up, barely arriving before they closed.  The vet won't be in tomorrow anyhow, turns out, so its just as well I got her this evening.  A huge windstorm blew up in the meantime, as temperatures skyrocket into the mid fifties.  The wind buffeted my car back and forth on the road and I watched ahead the fields and trees, in case something came flying towards the road that might hit my car.

I made it and I'm home. Miss Daisy is still unsteady and wobbly from the anesthesia.  She got pumped full of fluids too.   They tried to examine her without putting her under but it took only moments for her to turn into the cat from hell.  So they had to "take her down a notch" as the vet put it.

For the day there, the anesthesia, all those tests she got, the bill was under $300.  I was very very grateful, number one, that they worked her in and are determined to get to the bottom of her health issues, but number two, for the affordable price.   It won't destroy me for a year, to help Miss D.  Now that's a kind clinic.

For whatever time I have left to enjoy and love my beloved Miss Daisy I am grateful.

I also read more about vertigo since mine is still coming and going.  You get positional vertigo when the little tiny crystals that are supposed to be in one part of your inner ear, get dislodged into the semi circular canals.  Until those settle back into place where they belong, the vertigo will continue.  The point of the Canalith Repositioning Procedure is to get those tiny particles back to the proper part of the inner ear, then let them settle, by keeping the ear affected above shoulder level for 24 hours.  The procedure often works, but often doesn't, and needs repeated often.  I've done it to myself a few times here, but not done it properly and not afterwards kept my affected ear above shoulder level for 24 hours.  That's probably key to it working.

I didn't know until I read the Mayo clinic site about Vertigo that you can get it from a minor blow to the head.  But it seemed a little coincidental that I knocked my head hard on the corner of a shelf in the Exclusion Room the night before the day I woke with vertigo.  Depending on your position and where you hit your head, the blow can dislodge the crystals in the inner ear and start you on an adventure in vertigo land.

Because I've hit my head often on that particular protruding shelf corner and because it might have caused the vertigo I'm suffering now, in revenge, I brought in the jigsaw and took the corner off yesterday.  Felt good!

The usual vertigo lasts until the crystals find their way home in your inner ear.  Until that glorious day, I will expect to have bouts of topsy turvy when I lay down, stand up or move too quickly.  I will be extra slow moving when I get up from sitting or laying, to reduce the liklihood of a fall.

But thankfully, the disruptions are usually very brief, even so.  Life goes on.

I'm going to designate a Miss Daisy Day, in honor of my beloved D.   On that day, as long as I shall live, I will celebrate all she has come to mean to me.  Love.  Joy.  Happiness.  Friendship.  Optimism.  Silliness.

Miss D with rescued kitten Bambam

Miss D with rescued teen Calamity

Miss D with Slurpy and rescued kitten Grumbly Rumby

Miss D in the hanging basket.  Despite her deafness and older age, Miss D is always ALWAYS the first to try anything new.  Like the cat wheel.