Your Magic Worked, Thank You.
Dec. 27th, 2018 05:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lydamorehouse To anyone who kept Ms. Ball in their thoughts: IT WORKED. IT F*CKING WORKED.
Technically, Ms. Ball is NOT out of the woods yet. I just got back from the vet and I wrote this to my friendnaomikritzer I am 100% frazzled. You know our dying cat? Well, she's gone from "pretty sure it's bladder cancer" to "yeah, or maybe an infection?" To be fair, we finally got to talk to a real expert, an ultrasound guy that I've actually met before, "Dr. Ralph." Dr. Ralph is a hippy nerd who goes around in blue mini cooper and carries his fancy ultrasound equipment on a push cart from vet clinic to vet clinic and he cost us only $300, which is kind of astounding. Anyway, he ruled out OBVIOUS cancer. What he found was a lot of liquid in her bowels and at first he expected to find an obstruction, but didn't. He looked for carcinoma of all sorts, including bladder and felt pretty confident that even though her lymph nodes were a bit swollen he didn't see any.
So, last night at two am we were crying and looking for in-home euthanasia and now we're like, "This antibiotic is all we need? WTF."
I kind of blame our first doctor. He was very cagey and wouldn't commit to a diagnosis, but the only words we heard more than once were bladder cancer. And, it was in his printed notes. His bedside manner was... well, okay, the thing I've learned about myself and about my family is that what we like in our medical professionals is ALL THE SCIENCE. We need words. We need people who are comfortable bouncing theories around in front of us or even, more importantly, WITH us. We like running commentary. We REQUIRE details, specifics, and _words._
Luckily, the second doctor we got connected to on the phone had the science. We met another one today who also worded good.
We used to have a vet we LOVED out in St. Louis Park, but she's gone into semi-retirement and their clinic is the sort who treats first and then presents you with the bill and our financial situation has changed substantially since I was writing full time and before we had Mason. So, we can't have a doctor who (true story) says "Oh, I'm just going to take Inky into the back and take a look at this lump under his skin" and then when we're paying the bill discover that the "look" was actually an aspiration, which counts as a procedure and COSTS AND ARM AND A LEG.
Como Park Animal Hospital is the sort of place that comes out with an itemized bill for you to go over before they do ANYTHING, even a routine vaccination. You can cross things out or ask for them to be delayed or check the box that says "would like to discuss payment plan" because they are in a very urban setting and deal with a much wider swatch of the social-economic spectrum.
But, we haven't really seen many people at Como Park Animal Hospital and we literally took the first appointment available for Ms. Ball and it happened to be with Dr. No Science.
A crisis is not really when you want to be learning about whether or not you have good chemistry with your vet but OH MY GOD IS IT IMPORTANT.
It was kind of funny, because when I right away suggested that I would much rather have a different doctor take over Ms. Ball's care the entire room started nodding their heads and saying what seemed like a practiced phrase when I hedged a bit and said that I would understand if Dr. No Science wanted to follow this case through, though I would rather he took a secondary role, "Please don't worry about it, it is ENTIRELY up to you."
Anyway, lesson learned.
And Ms. Ball is NOT out of the woods. She has lost significant weight and we are still NOT sure what the hell is going on with her. But... maybe an infection and not IMMINENT DEMISE?
Finger crossed and now I may go collapse in a heap.
Technically, Ms. Ball is NOT out of the woods yet. I just got back from the vet and I wrote this to my friend
naomikritzer I am 100% frazzled. You know our dying cat? Well, she's gone from "pretty sure it's bladder cancer" to "yeah, or maybe an infection?" To be fair, we finally got to talk to a real expert, an ultrasound guy that I've actually met before, "Dr. Ralph." Dr. Ralph is a hippy nerd who goes around in blue mini cooper and carries his fancy ultrasound equipment on a push cart from vet clinic to vet clinic and he cost us only $300, which is kind of astounding. Anyway, he ruled out OBVIOUS cancer. What he found was a lot of liquid in her bowels and at first he expected to find an obstruction, but didn't. He looked for carcinoma of all sorts, including bladder and felt pretty confident that even though her lymph nodes were a bit swollen he didn't see any. So, last night at two am we were crying and looking for in-home euthanasia and now we're like, "This antibiotic is all we need? WTF."
I kind of blame our first doctor. He was very cagey and wouldn't commit to a diagnosis, but the only words we heard more than once were bladder cancer. And, it was in his printed notes. His bedside manner was... well, okay, the thing I've learned about myself and about my family is that what we like in our medical professionals is ALL THE SCIENCE. We need words. We need people who are comfortable bouncing theories around in front of us or even, more importantly, WITH us. We like running commentary. We REQUIRE details, specifics, and _words._
Luckily, the second doctor we got connected to on the phone had the science. We met another one today who also worded good.
We used to have a vet we LOVED out in St. Louis Park, but she's gone into semi-retirement and their clinic is the sort who treats first and then presents you with the bill and our financial situation has changed substantially since I was writing full time and before we had Mason. So, we can't have a doctor who (true story) says "Oh, I'm just going to take Inky into the back and take a look at this lump under his skin" and then when we're paying the bill discover that the "look" was actually an aspiration, which counts as a procedure and COSTS AND ARM AND A LEG.
Como Park Animal Hospital is the sort of place that comes out with an itemized bill for you to go over before they do ANYTHING, even a routine vaccination. You can cross things out or ask for them to be delayed or check the box that says "would like to discuss payment plan" because they are in a very urban setting and deal with a much wider swatch of the social-economic spectrum.
But, we haven't really seen many people at Como Park Animal Hospital and we literally took the first appointment available for Ms. Ball and it happened to be with Dr. No Science.
A crisis is not really when you want to be learning about whether or not you have good chemistry with your vet but OH MY GOD IS IT IMPORTANT.
It was kind of funny, because when I right away suggested that I would much rather have a different doctor take over Ms. Ball's care the entire room started nodding their heads and saying what seemed like a practiced phrase when I hedged a bit and said that I would understand if Dr. No Science wanted to follow this case through, though I would rather he took a secondary role, "Please don't worry about it, it is ENTIRELY up to you."
Anyway, lesson learned.
And Ms. Ball is NOT out of the woods. She has lost significant weight and we are still NOT sure what the hell is going on with her. But... maybe an infection and not IMMINENT DEMISE?
Finger crossed and now I may go collapse in a heap.
no subject
Date: 2018-12-28 12:44 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-12-28 04:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-12-28 04:28 pm (UTC)yeah I know. that's great news.
no subject
Date: 2018-12-28 04:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-12-28 01:46 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-12-28 04:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-12-28 03:06 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-12-28 04:29 pm (UTC)And thanks for the continued well wishes!
no subject
Date: 2018-12-28 03:13 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-12-28 04:31 pm (UTC)BUT I WILL TAKE THIS. This is so much better!!
no subject
Date: 2018-12-28 03:57 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-12-28 04:32 pm (UTC)And, thanks!
no subject
Date: 2018-12-28 02:40 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-12-28 04:36 pm (UTC)And, yes, yay! Ms. Ball is not insta-recovering, but as bad off as she is, that's not a surprise. But, she remains interested in food. Now if she can just retain what she takes in, we may have a winner!
no subject
Date: 2018-12-28 10:26 pm (UTC)I'm glad the news is better.
Please give Ms. Ball a scritch for me.
*head shake*
no subject
Date: 2018-12-29 12:34 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-12-29 12:22 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-12-29 12:35 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-12-29 04:10 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-12-31 10:19 am (UTC)Aw, a cat & her boy.
no subject
Date: 2018-12-29 10:48 pm (UTC)