We went to the hospital last night to visit Jasper. He was much calmer and was glad to see us. We held him for a while (he likes being cradled like a baby) and just closed his eyes and tucked himself into my chest as Harald scratched his head. He was drinking up the attention. He really doesn’t like the IV in his one good paw and his right front leg still doesn’t look like it’s getting much, if any, circulation. The echocardiogram showed that he has hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, a common heart problem for cats. He has a large blood clot in his heart and we are hoping the Heparin therapy begins to dissolve that. I’ve been trying to envision whole teams of little kitty angels going in and helping that drug work better and I’ve been doing visualizations watching the blod clot safely dissolve and healthy tissue and movement restored. That’s the image I’m clinging onto. I’ll go see Jasper again tonight after work and may or may not know more about his condition then. The doctor originally told me there was about a 50-50 change of him making a full recovery from the thromboembolism in his leg – some cats recover completely and some don’t. I am praying he is one that does.
The good doctor just called. They’ve given Jasper a mild sedative, as promised, to reduce his distress. They put in an IV and have started Heparin to try to dissolve the clot and save his leg. His chest x-ray shows fluid on the lungs and a “very large heart”, a sign of underlying heart disease as the doctor suspected. He’s starting heart medication immediately and medicine to clear up his lungs. He is, the doctor said, “very concerned about why his one good front leg has an IV in it”, but it didn’t stop him from eating all the food they put down for him. It was good to hear that he has settled down comfortably and was eating. They will do the echocardiogram on him later today and he will be in hospital until at least Friday. But I can go see him tonight up till 8:00, so the realtor has made plans to meet us at H’s place at 5:00 to do all the paperwork so we can get to see Jasper before they close. I know I will feel better after I get a chance to visit him myself tonight. We still don’t know whether the clot will resolve and the right leg paralysis go away. It seems that only the tincture of time holds that answer.
I wish I had something more cheerful to write about in my first blog entry in months. But I don’t think I am quite up to repeating this several times over, at least not today.
Jasper was his normal talking and frisky self this morning when I woke up and opened the bedroom door. He came running upstairs like he always does and put his two front paws up on the chair to tell me loudly to get downstairs and feed him (this is our routine). However, a few minutes later when I did get downstairs and put his food out, I thought I saw him limping and after watching him for a few minutes, realized he was dragging his right front paw. He began to talk even more loudly that unusual and it was plain he was in distress. His pupils were very dilated (unevenly) and he began to pant heavily. A quick call to the vet’s office then the after-hours emergency vet line and H and I decided to be at my vet’s office when they opened at 8:30. We got there at 8:31 and when I walked in with Jasper in my arms, they knew something was wrong and rushed us into the first available waiting room. God bless Dr. Schulman, she is such a compassionate doctor. Vets really are a special breed, aren’t they? They suspect several things. First, a blood clot as a result of underlying heart disease. The prognosis would be uncertain, but they are almost positive this has happened based on the exam. They have hospitalized him and will do all sorts of tests today. I had broke down crying badly while waiting for Harald to arrive (why does it always seem like an eternity when it’s an emergency?), but I really lost it when the good doctor took Jasper out of the room and had to take a few minutes to gather myself together. Even the *thought* of something bad happening to Jasper just breaks my heart into. As much as I loved Miss Boots, Jasper is the best cat I’ve ever had and I would be lost without him and very, very sad. I hope they don’t have to amputate his leg, which is one possibility. I had H drop me off at work because I need the distraction of work to keep me from (temporarily) losing my mind. All you animals lovers, another “prayer flung up toward heaven” would be much appreciated. And maybe a little one for the owner who seems equally distraught.
OK, so some of you probably don’t know that I have this “thing” for chickens. They make me laugh. They remind me of Mrs. Rudd’s (my childhood babysitter in Tallahassee) chicken coop in the back yard and collecting eggs from the occasionally nasty hens. I think of roosters crowing in the early morning and the smell of straw, the wonderful brown of those eggs and the deep, deep color of the yolks, the creak of the coop door, and even the dreaded chicken snake. The livestock and poultry exhibits are the first stop at the Minnesota State Fair every year. I like chickens so much I made a quilt full of them several years ago using Bethany Reynolds‘ Stack-n-Whack method and asked the quilter to fill it full of chickens when quilting it – which she thankfully did. I just can’t be blue when I see a chicken. But I never thought I would see a chick coop like this one. My friend, Roz, sent the link yesterday and the mind just boggles when you read how long it took the artist to create this particular coop. Just think of how nice those chickens have it. The stained glass, the chandelier, the ceiling. Jean Benelli has some of her other artwork shown at this website. I am particularly attracted to the Chicken Saint in neon. All this chicken talk is reminding me of my own dream to one day have my own chicken coop. I know it will probably never happen, but one can dream, right?
