I Don't Even Know Where To Start

I'm tired... maybe that's a good place to start. And sad. And tired.

I left work early today to get Elliott back to the vet. It was decided that we'd do some x-rays before our doctor referred us to an internist, and the quicker, the better given his rapid weight loss. So we arrived at the vet around 4:15, and they did two x-rays (one from the top and one from the side). Immediately a strange shape popped out. As the vet said, "Well, we found something, but I have no idea what it is." Hmmm...

Here's a rather poor picture of the strangely shaped thing. From the top (not shown), it looks round. From the side (as seen here), it looks like half of a quarter with a jagged edge. Don't look at the see-thru circle in the image, look for the half-moon shaped white object below it. It was nearly impossible to tell where this strange thing was, because Elliott is so dehydrated and skinny. She thought maybe the gallbladder? The stomach? Or a tissue mass? Thinking the stomach, I guessed that maybe it was a piece of a toy, but the doctor said that plastic doesn't show up like this on an x-ray, and she said it's some calcified thing. Okay.

Next we decided to run some Barium tests. I've had it done before on me, but for those who don't know, they pretty much force-fed Elliott lots of liquid Barium. Barium shows up on x-rays, so the idea is to take multiple x-rays over a period of time to track the "digestion" or movement of the Barium. This test showed us that the strange thing moved, which might be proof that it is in his stomach, which was important. It was at least a temporary sigh of relief - seeing it on an x-ray and knowing where it was.

So by this time it's 8 PM or so (that's about 4 hours later by the way), and the vet referred me to an emergency clinic in Towson for an endoscopy. With any luck, the gadgets on the end of the endoscope can grab that thing and pull it out. So my vet calls Towson to set things up, but then sits down with me after the call with a new suggestion. Apparently the vet at the Towson clinic said that they couldn't fit an endoscopy in until Wednesday, and said that they'd take Elliott to surgery tonight instead. My vet (being the awesome lady that she is), turned down this doctor and called another emergency clinic instead, because she said she got a "bad vibe" from the Towson doctor. So far my vet has been fabulous, so I trust her completely. If she got a bad vibe, we wouldn't be going to Towson.

So we went to Annapolis. Yeah.

I got there about 8:30/8:45, watched a few dogs foam at the mouth, watched one family put their dog to sleep, and we waited. At this point Elliott has growled and hissed at everyone at our vet's office, and now is falling asleep in his crate. Seriously, how bad does it have to be for him to be falling asleep? He's still not home, dogs are sick and dying, and he can't keep his eyes open. He was so obviously at his limit.

So to make a long, long story as short as I can at this point, the vet came in, reviewed his x-rays and paperwork, confirmed the findings, and took Elliott for the night. He was growling and hissing so much that I offered to take him to his cage. He's not a bad cat at all... but five hours of being poked and prodded is a lot for a sickly little kitty cat.

It's 10:30 pm now, and I'm home with Antonio. I've had a few good cries, and I am hoping and praying that this endoscopy works. If they can't remove it with the endoscope, they'll go straight to surgery right then and there. Money isn't an object, but I'm already down $1500 so far today... and the surgery will add another $2000 to the damages.

Here's a photo of Elliott that I took while we waited for his bed to be ready. Poor kitty.

I have hope that everything tomorrow will go well, but please send Elliott happy thoughts. He is not a happy kitty right now, and he's also without his loving mom and dog. Despite the horrible evening he has had, every time I picked him up or stuck my hand or face in his crate, I was able to calm him down. We're bonded, 'Lellie and I. He needs him mom just as much as I need my cat. Sweet dreams little guy. Be strong for me.