In just two weeks, it will be the one-year anniversary of Faith, my almost 15-year-old calico, suddenly becoming very will.
Over the first few weeks of 2022, we had noticed that she was spitting up more hairballs than usual and wondered if she'd lost a little weight, although her weight had inched up a little and she had a little to lose.
But the hairballs slightly concerned us. At the time, we were battling a series of family emergencies. Faith had to wait her turn on the list.
Then on day, she started vomiting repeatedly and she went to the top of the list. She wound up with fluids, special food to get her over the hump, and medication to stop the vomiting. Her bloodwork was normal.
Two days later she was in the hospital with severe dehydration, weight loss, and aspiration pneumonia. This time, she received a feeding tube, oxygen, endoscopic biopsy, and a diagnosis of small cell lymphoma.
She was one sick little kitty. As the medical bills escalated over that horrible week, we discussed all options, including humane euthanasia.
Then the miraculous occurred.
When Faith improved enough for visitors, the hospital wanted to train us to tube feed her. The training failed because Faith struggled to breathe without oxygen, especially after getting so excited to see me. She was whisked away, and we received a verbal lesson on tube feeding.
The next day, Faith had done a nearly complete turnaround.
Hospital staff said her oxygen levels improved dramatically after my visit and they were weaning her off oxygen. We went back up to the hospital and saw a very different, much more like Faith kitty.
The new plan was to wean her completely off oxygen over the next twenty-four hours and release her in a few days.
Faith actually never went back on the oxygen after my second visit and came home the very next day with two antibiotics, steroids for life, and anti-nausea medication. Vitamin B12 was added later, also for life.
We never tube-fed her either.
She was scrawny and still battling pneumonia. But we were told that if she ate and drank on her own, not to tube-feed her.
She did. So we didn't.
We did have to flush the tube every day and give one antibiotic by tube, a two-person job handled by Rebekah and me. When the tube became infected, another antibiotic was added.
And Faith kept improving.
The vet left the feeding tube in place because cats sometimes need it when they start chemotherapy. Over the next two months, we sought a couple of opinions, discussed ways to finance Faith's treatment, and debated the most humane plan for her.
In the meantime, Faith kept gaining weight and regaining her energy.
We eventually decided against chemotherapy and asked for a palliative care plan. We understood what that meant for Faith. It meant we would get two to three months with her. That's the best cats typically do on a steroids-only regime.
But Faith's health had normalized a bit. And that is what we wanted for the rest of her life, even if that life was shorter than we wanted. Faith is an extremely anxious cat when it comes to medical procedures. And we didn't want to fill what was left of her life with trauma and recovering from trauma.
However, it was Frances, our tabby, who wound up unexpectedly euthanized in August, not Faith. But we also understood Faith's time would come shortly afterward.
But it didn't.
We also understood Faith would not see the holidays.
She did.
We also understood Faith would not see 2023.
But she did.
Now Faith took a slight downturn when I flew out to North Carolina in mid-January to say goodbye to my father, who took a dramatic downturn one Tuesday morning when I was recovering from COVID.
But with one vet trip and some extra fluids, Faith bounced back. We also learned her bloodwork was normal and that she needed to lose a pound.
Normal. Can you believe it?
Now, her ultrasound, when we schedule another one just to see the cancer progression, will not be normal. She has small small cell lymphoma and that is not going away.
But Faith, as one person commented on social media, is living up to her name.
And we hope she continues to live a good kitty life, however much life Faith has left in her journey.
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