The laser surgery's over, and the sad little cat's tucked away in the bedroom with his awful plastic collar. Unfortunately, he's not eating or drinking or peeing or pooping, and the ophthalmologist feels certain that the no-longer-with-us tissue from his left eye was malignant. Not exactly what I'd expected to hear, somehow. And certainly not what I wanted to hear, or think about or see, or know, actually.
These are the medications he came home with: (nothing steroidal, to try to keep the OTJ status)
1) flurbiprofen - antibiotic/painkiller? - 1 drop 4x a day for 1 week, then 3x a day, I guess until the next appointment. I need to call them, I suppose.
2) BNP ointment - Bacitracin-neomycin-polymyxin veterinary ophthalmic ointment - Small amount 2x a day for 1 week, then 1x a day at night.
3) Atropine - Atropine Sulfate Ophthalmic ointment - 1x a day for 4 days, then every other day for 10 days.
4) Metacam - .05ml by mouth once a day for 14 days. Not to start until tomorrow because they gave him a shot of metacam today.
5) lysine - usual stuff to try to keep the herpes under control.
Here's the problem: most of this stuff travels down inside his little head from his eye through his nose and into his mouth. And most of it tastes really bad. And he won't eat. Also, none of it can be given at the same time as anything else, which pretty much guarantees that he's not gonna be able to eat much of anything the whole time he's using all this medication. Assuming that I can concoct and maintain a schedule of dosing for him, plus coordinate it with Milkshake's already time-consuming pilling schedule. And, please give me pills any day. In the mouth, wrapped in a pill pocket and gone. Ruining his sense of taste - what's the point? I was also warned to be sure to carefully wipe my hands after giving him the atropine because it could end up having a similar effect on me that it does on him, only very long lasting: drastically dilated pupils. I need to look that up, I guess. Whatever, it sounds like a threat for both of us.
They said not to feed him until 6:00 PM. Unfortunately, I hadn't noticed over the past five days that the Flurbiprofen must be one of those nasty tasting eye drops, because the minute I put it in his eyes, he started spitting and dripping and that was the end of eating or drinking anything at that attempt. After the first unfortunate experience, I waited until I could get at least a little food into him before trying one of the ointments. Which was a good thing, because that taste seemed to be the direct cause of the crying-with-whimpery-baby-noises. I did get maybe an ounce of canned EVO - with water and lysine and taurine into him with Milk's baby bottle. And a minimal amount - drops, maybe - of water with another bottle. Then, after I'd left to put the things in the kitchen, I noticed that he had tried to eat the little bit of Fancy Feast I'd left on a little china coaster from Old Economy. The stupid cone must have gotten hooked under the edge of the coaster, though, because it was backed up against the wall and the FF had slid off. I guess it was a good thing that he wanted to eat; too bad he didn't get to. I will make another stab at it again before I go to bed. The directions said that the horrible cone could be taken off if he was supervised, which seemed like the best way to entice him to eat later. Wasn't. And it's a pain. I couldn't figure out which way it needed to go to replace it. The good thing about it is that the directions say that, instead of making him wear it for 3 weeks, which is what the original instructions said, the new paper says "one week, then as needed." Hopefully, one week will be all that's needed.
Scruffy's miserable. I can't comfort him, I can't get him to eat, he can't sit or lay right because of the cone. I am debating trying to sleep in the extra bedroom with him - I hate to have him be alone, and he's slept on me every night for years, but he's not supposed to jump, and I don't think I'd survive the arthritic agony of a night on the floor. His eye is kind of distorted, and it's an odd color - bruised, I suppose, or burned - but it looked like the bottom part of the melanosis/melanoma was still there; a little triangular artifact. I remember that the ophthalmologist said that he was delighted to find that the tissue had started to "regress" while he was still working on it, and that that was good because some eyes take a couple weeks to see the regression. It didn't register that that may mean that the ugly thing is still going to be there in some form, threatening him, for an extended period of time. Actually, if the odds are only 65% of being able to remove the tissue, maybe it'll always be there. I hope not.
This was a horrible day, and a pretty horrible outcome. Not the actual outcome, I guess, of the laser surgery, but the idea that it could even have BEEN a melanoma is horrible. I spent four years trying to repair the damage I did to the poor cat by giving him diabetes, and now - cancer. My old refrain about his walking into the wrong garage springs to mind once again.
Last minute minutia:
- total cost (next follow-up visit is included) - $1051. Plus, $146 for Dr. B. appointment last week, $100 or so for Dr. K appointment the week before, $271 for xrays and bloodwork at Dr. G's. I hope that's enough money for the Universe to say , "Okay, cancer, out of there; Scruffy's covered."
- I have two kitty pi's and a heated electric pad for him to lay on. It's chilly tonight, although that room is usually the warmest place in the house. I want him to be comfortable and pain-free and to have a full-happy stomach. Probably not gonna happen tonight, any of it...
- checked his glucose level just before cramming him in the carrier this morning - 76. And at the hospital, after the surgery, they checked him and he was 80. It would be nice to be able to maintain that; the thought of having to start testing and shooting him again makes me sick. It's about time he gets a break.
-really not crazy about giving him metacam every day for the next two weeks. It's purpose was as an anti-inflammatory, not a painkiller. Still seems like an undesirable plan. I think I'll post and see what others think.
- the litter box was empty - not too suprising, although I would have thought that they'd have given him fluids during the procedure. I gave him the box with the Feline Pine Clumping in it - for a week now, he's been waiting to sneak in and pee in that stuff as soon as I open the door for The Girls to come out in the morning. Now he'll have it all to himself. I do hope he pees soon.
I love you, my sweet Puffer.
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