Hi everyone, update on my girl, Luanne.

She was making steady progress last week until about Thursday night when she started losing steam, getting more lethargic and by Saturday was only having a few bites of food then going back to sleep. We kept in touch with our vet throughout, and changed up things that might be making her uncomfortable, but when none of it was working we took her into the hospital.

They said they were glad we brought her in when we did, because she may not have survived another day at home. Her red blood count was way down, and they remarked on how odd that was given how she got through the surgery and was healing otherwise. she had a full CT scan before surgery too, and they didn't find anything amiss then. 

The theory yesterday when we brought her in was that her cancer had metastaticised before the amputation could help her, She spent sunday in the icu getting a transfusion, which she responded well to, and stayed stable overnight.

The theory now is that she had some sort of intestinal bleed, since she's had gastric issues before. That's a lot more treatable than metastatic cancer, so they're running more tests and keeping her for another day at least. She's apparently alert and eating, and continuing to hold stable.

Suffice to say it was not a fantastic weekend. Yesterday I was pretty sure I was going to lose her, and though that still might happen, she's in good hands and getting top notch care.

Ever since I took her home from the shelter fifteen years ago, almost to the day, I've known that I'm in it for the long haul with her and willing to do whatever it takes to keep her comfortable and with the highest possible quality of life. I didn't expect her to make it through the surgery, so every moment I've gotten with her in the past week and a half has been an gift.

If all goes to plan we'll have her back by midweek and hopping around shortly thereafter.

Until then, thank dog for pet health insurance. I've gotten a full return on fifteen years of premiums in the past month, and there have been a lot of decisions we were able to make medically and not financially, which has made an already stressful and emotional situation much easier to navigate.

Hug your fur babies close for me, and send some good vibes her way if you have any to spare. Thanks again for all the support so, far. 

Here's a long overdue update on Luanne - 

So she doing fantastic! After she got her stitches out I had to give her a series of medicines to help her intestinal issues clear up, it was twice a day over the course of about two hours each time, so it was a production, but she was a trooper and we both made it through.

Once the course of medications ended, she started to perk up a lot more, and has been getting more adventurous every day. We still keep her in an enclosure to sleep at night (still haven't gotten her down a flight of stairs without carrying her) but during the day she's been doing a lot more moving around, jumping up and down from furniture, and has even started figuring out how to cover her business in the litter box.

Last week we went to the vet hospital and her red blood cells are up to normal levels. The next time we take her in for a check up we can take her to our normal vet, not the hospital.

We're not there yet, and it's been a journey of diagnoses and doctors and a whole lot of worry, but every day she's doing more. The other day my husband let her out of her enclosure before I woke up, and when I opened my eyes there she was, hopped up on the bed and staring at me, purring.

Also, results came back on the tumor and it was benign! It was wrapped around her elbow joint, so was still painful and needed to be removed, but I'm so glad we don't have to worry about cancer.

Over the last few weeks we have gotten a lot of scary diagnoses from the vets, and I realized they always lead with the worst case scenario, even if it may be unlikely, I think so you're mentally prepared no matter what happens next.

When it comes down to it, even though every time we went to the vet we were told it could be metastatic cancer or heart failure or leukemia or any of the other things they warned us she might have, she had a benign tumor, has recovered from the surgery itself very well, and had an unrelated ulcer that caused an intestinal bleed but we caught in time for it to be very treatable. 

So, looking back to how worried and heartbroken I was when I learned we'd have to amputate, it absolutely was all worth it. I know she's an older cat, and despite the amputation I don't know how much longer I have with her, but from here on every moment I get with her is such a precious gift.

Now that we're out of the woods, I'd love to put some info together with a longer version of all of this (and how things progress after) for the tripawd cat community, where would be a good place to do that? A blog? Let me know!

Thanks again everyone. This has been a difficult process made easier by the pure and kind support here.