Hi all...and Merry Christmas!

By Thursday, his levels had stabilized. Still high--but stable. At that point, we were thinking he'd be a candidate for PU surgery (perineal urethrostomy--basically a sex change ) to remove the chance of re-obstructing form bladder stones.

Unfortunately, ultrasound showed not only did he have a number of bladder stones, the stones we thought were just in his kidneys were also in his ureters. His left kidney is completely obstructed, and is dead. The right one has maybe 10% of its function, and the renal pelvis is pretty bad.

So, long story short, his kidneys are simply too destroyed to warrant the risk of the PU surgery. We decided to drain his bladder, bring him home, and see if (by some weird miracle) he'd pee on his own. If he didn't we would put him down on Friday.

By some strange happening, he DID pee on Thursday night. So he got some more time. However, he didn't pee all day Friday. Saturday we took him in to be expressed. He peed a little on his own (and passed a small stone), and they drained him. So he was NOT obstructed--his urinary problem was a functional obstruction. Could be psychological, could be the damage from all the catheters etc. was too much. COuld be temporary.

Saturday night, we woke up in a puddle--he couldn't "hold it" anymore, and his bladder made the decision for him and he wet the bed. Yay! Er, yuck...but yea! But Sunday, again...nothing. So...Monday we took him in to drain--and lo and behold, when she squeezed him, he peed a huge stream. So CLEARLY not obstructed. We started him on prednisone to sort of "force" him to pee, and to reduce any inflammation he may have in the UT to see if that would help.

Monday night, he wet the bed again ...BUT he was peeing. So, he was incontinent (leaking), but finally peeing on his own and eating as well. Today, he made it all night without leaking, so he's out and about. He's kind of slow, as obviouslyt renal failure doesn't make you peppy...but he had some cat nip, and is now napping in the kitchen.

Long, long story shorter... we fully understand that this is a brief reprieve. The vet didn't even think we'd make it to Friday, so the roller coaster has surprised him as well. In a good way, but still. Eventually, either he will reobstruct, his bladder won't recover from the trauma, or the kidney will simply give out altogether and our daily fluids won't be enough to keep him going. We have decided as soon as that happens, we will say goodbye. That could be tomorrow, it could be a few weeks from now. Who knows. For right now, though, he is home again. He is eating. He is as fat and lazy as ever. He is not in pain. We are going to celebrate Christmas, and be thankful we have him here. He really does have nine lives...we may be on life #8.99999878899, but who doesn't like a little drama, right?

That's the update!

And Rene: the talk went well, I think. The silly people were crying before I even said anything :p I had to remind them that Sam's story was a HAPPY story. No regrets, only positive experiences, and that he lived--and died--well, which was a tremendous blessing. There was a lot of talk about poop eating and humping and rabbit chasing and stubborness, which, of course, was how it should be. His whole team--PT and acupuncture and our regular vet--all of them allowed Sam to be Sam up until the day he died. There is so much talk in this world about living well, so few people talk about DYING well. And we were able to have that thanks to everyone there. So I hope they knew how much they meant.

It was well attended, there were cookies (one may have helped with the other :p). Our regular vet came to listen; Sam's PT tech ran up after we were done and gave us a weepy hug, it was all good.

Sally: That is a very good question. They DID videotape it for the night shift people. I will see if they have a link to it. If so, I will post it. <3