First we had an appointment to have our oldest male cat, Hunter, taken in to follow up on some recurrent mouth ulcers he has had. Well he did a Houdini that day and managed to avoid being found for the appointment. However we had some concern with Acadia (Cadi) being too skinny thanks to the objective eye of Victoria's mom, who remarked that she was too skinny. As we are with her every day, the change was too gradual to notice. So anyway, Ryan (Victoria's brother) took Cadi to Hunter's appointment and the vet weighed her, finding her to be only six pounds! She was ten pounds at her previous check-up and had very little deviation in weight for the previous 11 years of her life, so this was a huge deal!
The vet ran the usual battery of tests and called us with the result; Cadi has diabetes. After the initial shock, which was lessened by the memory of giving my sister's cat diabetes shots when she was away several years ago because he had the same condition, I researched the issue and found that the insulin available nowadays is cheaper and better for cats, so more relief there. Then there was the issue of expense. When I met with the vet for a tutorial on how to administer the shots and monitor her I was presently surprised to find that the visit and several months worth of supplies was less than $100. The only really expensive item is the special minimum 50% protein diet she needs to be on, which costs a good 50% more than other premium cat foods. Since we free-feed all of our cats from an always-full food bowl of dry food, we need to buy this same food multiplied by five, as segregated eating is not feasible.
So then Hunter's rescheduled appointment arrives today. He still has mouth sores and the vet is concerned that they have not resolved. Although he was vaccinated against Feline Leukemia, he was retested for that as well as for kitty AIDS and a complete battery of blood and urine tests. Everything came up normal except for some slightly elevated BUN (Blood Urea Nitrogen), which was followed up with a urine test that did not confirm any renal issues. Most likely the slightly high reading was due to eating the high protein food that we have to get for Acadia. Since all of those tests did nothing to explain his mouth ulcers and the vet was stumped, she sedated him and took two samples (biopsies) of the ulcers from his tongue and is sending them out for analysis. It may take until Monday to get results from the biopsies. The other good news from the tests is that Hunter, although a litter-mate of Acadia, has no signs of diabetes or any other disease.
All of this cat news is not to be taken that Maya has not been the subject of any medical concerns. On the contrary, we had an appointment with the Infectious Disease doctor at CCMC, who was unable to give us any answer for Maya's repeated sinus infections that only respond to Levaquin and was only able to point us to Yale or Boston for an Immunologist (which we actually thought he was going into the appointment, go figure) and give us standing prescriptions for Azithromycin and Levaquin and tell us to use them as needed when new infections arose, but only until symptoms were contained, not for a full period as the doctrine is drilled into our heads regarding antibiotics.
So after both an internet request and a follow-up voice mail request we were contacted by the Hematology department at Boston Children's Hospital and were told that we needed to get medical referrals from our Pediatrician for both their Hematology and their Immunology/Allergy departments, as her possible issue(s) span both disciplines. We were also told to gather every lab, record, study and note from every doctor who had ever looked at her and send them to Boston prior to any appointment that will be set up. Good thing we have most of that work already done and just need to update some scanned PDF files of recent notes and labs to get the CD's up to date and send them up soon.
Now for the day-to-day news. Brianna has had a great summer at Brodie Camp and is becoming a very confident swimmer. She is very darkly tanned despite our daily application of 50 SPF sunblock prior to her 5 and 1/2 hour camp day, but is very fit looking and feeling due to her daily activity level. I dread the switch back to school when her activity level will be only a fraction of what camp provided! She also has made new friends and cemented current friendships and should have no social problems starting first grade in a few weeks.
And one other thing - she has lost her fourth baby tooth! They all were from the bottom center four and the two center ones are growing in and are about 1/4 in already. The one on the right is somewhat behind and twisted from where it should be, so if it does not improve quite a bit she may be headed for braces to correct it in the future.
Maya's sophistication in speaking is continually amazing. She says sentences very precisely and with the complexity of someone much older. That is unless she's overtired or wants something. If you're lucky at these times she'll warn you, "I in a mood." Most of those times she'll just scream, cry or whine or maybe call say to you, "You bad *insert boy. man, girl or lady here*." This is of course funny but we have to withhold a smirk and tell her that is not nice to say.
Maya looking like a toddler Ted Nugent - dig the necklace!
She also enjoys puzzles, picking raspberries, playing sophisticated imaginative games with her dolls and toys and taunting her sister, which is actually a mutually enjoyed sport, much to the frustration of their parents.
Victoria has been working a lot lately but will be getting a little break to have a Peace Corps Ecuador group informal reunion in San Francisco at the end of the month.
I have been continuing job searching, which has been about as fruitful as looking for a good time with the opposite sex in Provincetown during Gay Pride week. (It's just a joke, I'm a nutty left wing liberal whose on your side people, so no protest e-mails please ;) ) I've even opened up my search to much lower-paying professions that I would enjoy, such as motorcycle/scooter sales and/or repair, to no avail. It's tough out there people!
Bye for now,
-Chris
