a scary day with some bad/good news

A note from Mom:

Let me first thank everyone for their continued support and good wishes. It means a lot to our whole little family.

I'd also like to apologize for the boys not posting very much; it's been a hard few weeks, but we finally have some news.

Buzzy has not been doing very well lately and the last week or so has been especially bad. He hadn't really eaten anything since Sunday, even though he's on an appetite stimulant. Then Tuesday he started to have a lot of difficulty breathing. Rushed him to the vet where they did an x-ray. Turns out the poor guy's chest was completely filled with fluid. There was so much that his lung capacity was at less than 1/4 what it should be. Dr. Wendy tried to do a chest tap to drain-off some of the fluid and get him some relief. But Buzzy was already pretty stressed by that point and was very "un-cooperative". Since sticking a needle into his chest was pretty dangerous to begin with, Dr. Wendy decided it was not safe to continue. She gave him a shot of lasix to help him eliminate some of the fluid on his own. Everyone at Dr. Wendy's was amazing as always, and did all that they could to get Buzzy (and Mom!) feeling better.

Jim is away on a business trip that he really does need to be at (got lots more vet bills in the future) and has been wonderful with the long distance support. But that did leave Buzzy, Meep, and a pretty wrecked Mom to get thru the night on their own. Little Meepster did his best to make me smile and he did a very good job. Poor Buzzy was just in no shape to do anything; he couldn't even get comfy enough to be able to fall asleep.

Today Buzzy seemed to be feeling even worse then he did yesterday. We had an appointment for an ultra-sound that was about 45 minutes away. Now I am the first to admit that I am not much of a driver under the best circumstances. But the thought of all that highway driving while trying to comfort Buzzy at the same time, was way to much for me. Luckily I found an incredible car service that took us to the appointment, waited for us, and then brought us home - you should have seen the receiptionist's face when Buzzy & I came in with a limo driver carrying the x-rays! (Now that Buzz has ridden in a Town Car, I'm not sure how he's gonna feel about our little Ford Ranger!)

The ultra-sound revealed that Buzzy does have a tumor growing right near his heart. It's about as big around as if you brought your forefinger and thumb towards eachother but left a 1/2 inch gap. So that is indeed the bad news. The good news is that the dr. is pretty sure it's lymphoma, especially given that Buzzy is FIV+. We have an appointment next week for a full cavity ultra-sound and an aspiration (like a biopsy) so that we'll know for sure. If it is lymphoma, we might have some treatment options. After those tests are performed, we have a consult with the oncologist to determine our next steps. (Thankfully Jim will be home for those, or I might have a break-down!)

With the dr's help, we'll try to determine what's the best thing for Buzzy. Of course we want to keep him with us forever, but we need to do whatever gives him the highest quality of life possible. There's only so much we can put the poor guy thru and hopefully this new info will help us figure-out what's best for our little boy.

Ugh - if you're still reading, my aplogies; I didn't mean for that to be so long and detailed. Thank you to all our blogosphere friends for always being there for us. We'll post more when we have updates.

Take care everyone. People, please give your kitties (or other critters) a big hug & a kiss, and kitties, please give your people a head-butt & a kiss.