From:
Sukie Crandall
Date: 2002-06-19 00:48:00 UTC
Subject: what a brew; treating for those final weeks
In today's appointment it was found that Warp not only does now also
have cardiomyopathy but she also has what looks to possibly be a
heart tumor.
Talk about a strange balancing act.
Meds for Warp are now -- and have been for a while (a few weeks?) --
all centered around giving her whatever quality time she has left
because otherwise she'd be gone by now but she is happy with this
special care.
So here she is: 8 years old, huge nodes from possible lymphoma
(symptoms fit but she is not someone you'd submit to the stresses
involved in finding out for sure) which are right now her greatest
source of discomfort and that is medicated for, advanced insulinoma
(but now her blood sugar may be vascilating some in both directions),
R adrenal hyperplasia which is mostly in the noise but if she can
tolerate another med in her brew in a week then we'll be trying
Ovaban (At this point we are not sure if it should be tried after
today's appointment.), a friable small intestine that was never
expected to allow her to reach even middle age, and her heart
problems.
In a critter who didn't have advanced problems from some of the other
things there would be medical conflicts with the conditions and
treatments, but any time with comfort and happy living is extra time
so some cautions get thrown to the wind depending on what else is
likely to kill her first, anyway, and we just keep her comfy and
happy now.
So many meds and she could go up to 10 med doses per day on the
Ovaban days if that is added... We have gotten very good at hiding
them, so most of the time she doesn't realizet hat she is being
medicated. Thank goodness for useful things like a/d, Ferretone, and
Nutrical. Oh, and if she acts like her tum hurts she gets some
Carafate some days. too.
It is such a different situation when it's end-of-life treatment for
whatever comfortable time can be gotten as the goal.
In 20 years we have had only one who presented as complicated a
balancing act; she was even worse than Warp, but this is a very
unusual situation to have so many things at once.