From:
Sukie Crandall
Date: 2002-06-24 13:30:00 UTC
Subject: Warp update
Eight year old Warp is fading but still with us. Her stamina is
amazing. She drinks enough to avoid dehydration but has no desire to
eat, which is to be expected, though once in a while she takes just a
few licks of a/d in water but that seems to be more to make us happy.
In her final days my mother had no desire for food, either; much of
this brings back those memories.
We are worried that Warp may be starting to have kidney problems due
to a mouth lesion. Hopefully not. We've been letting her pass at
home with careful pain control because her past involved abuse and
she stresses very easily so for her sake this seems to be the kinder
option instead of the usual, though I can sure tell you that a
protracted death-watch is incredibly difficult. One of her
malignancies, likely the lymphoma, is so advanced that the sweet rot
smell permeates her and we smell of it from holding her. If it
starts in on something like her kidneys she will have to have a mercy
shot because then the pain will be beyond what we can control with
her pain meds, but we want to spare her the stress since she is so
upset by males other than Steve or Joe now that if we sit with her by
the tv we've taken to watching it without sound (so she is usually
with us for other things like writing computer messages), but there
isn't time for tv unless we are sitting with her, anyway, though we
are letting ourselves have about a half hour of comedy each night
because we just plain need it.
She got to do her nighttime "Trick Daddy" three times last night. Two
of the times she was so tired she settled in to sleep with him. The
first time she decided that his nose would be a good pillow (He was
on his side.) and just laid her head on his nose and nodded off.
I still pretend that she has a wonderful bakery smelling belly for
her and do big belly-sniffs; she loves that.
It's a very hard haul, both emotionally and physically.
Am still asking folks to not write to me privately because I just
don't have the time for anything but her, Steve, the other ferrets
(with Sev due for surgery on Wednesday), the FHL moderation, and a
few letters/posts, and that is sharing chores with Steve and doing
shifts with him.
Many, many thanks to the other moderators who are helping off-set
some of my part of the FHL chores, and to folks who are doing archive
searches and encouraging others to do so, and to the many folks who
give such excellent advice for everyone daily. You have no idea how
deeply I appreciate you all and the ways you help everyone. You are
treasures.