Update On Noodle & Misty 7/17/2008

Katie enjoying her fish tunnel toy

Noodle has been having a very rough go of it since my last post. The outbreak of nodules on his back continues and has extended to his tummy again. He has a large golf ball size one in his lower quadrant that has been draining from two areas for several weeks now that you can see in the picture. I did not photograph his back, as it still has not healed to an appropriate level for pictures. He was on pain meds for a while but has not needed them for the past few days. I was just crushed to see the darn things return with such a vengeance, and of course my heart just went out to my poor little guy. As you can see, he is back in his baby shirts again and often has to wear his hat to keep from picking at his wounds. For those of you unfamiliar with this sort of thing, it is similar to having something like a diabetic ulcer. It is difficult to deal with, but not something that you would put him to sleep for. I would never let any of my babies suffer needlessly. Noodle has never been at the point where one would consider putting him to sleep, except when he was attacked. Since he was expected to make a full recovery after surgery, I opted for that rather than ending his very young life. This problem is completely unrelated to the attack and goes back about six months before it. I am still hopeful, despite the setback that he will make a full recovery.

I recently decided to put all the babies on a raw food diet. I can certainly see why they named it the B.A.R.F diet, as it quite looks like someone barfed after it is mixed up. Katie, Misty and Reggie however, just love it! Max thus far has refused to eat it and I swear Noodle gags every time I put the bowl in front of him. It’s really quite comical! Of course he too has refused to eat it. I have to say however, that the improvement in Katie, Misty and Reggie’s coats is remarkable, and Reggie, who has always had trouble with hairballs, has also had a substantial improvement in that area. Why is it that when the little darlings decide to throw up, that it is always on the carpet? We have ceramic tile, wood and carpet floors in our home, and inevitably, it always ends up on the carpet! So out comes the carpet-cleaning machine again! Oh well, at least the carpets get cleaned on a regular basis and I get a little exercise. Why stop at one spot when you can do the whole room! Speaking of cleaning, I bought a neat little Green Tea Bissell 1867-7 Steam Mop awhile back to clean and sanitize the floors. If you are in the market for a hard floor cleaner, I highly recommend it! We have white ceramic tile floors, and it does a great job keeping them looking like new. I just love it!

Misty is doing very well! She is at about 95% of her former self now. Although she still has occasional relapses, I am very pleased with her progress and she has adapted well to the other cats, as well as to being in the house. Recently I had to go out of town and all of the babies accompanied me. I’ve never traveled with all five of them before, but they did beautifully on the trip. Reggie absolutely refused to share his large kennel with anyone, so he traveled quite happily alone. Noodle and Max traveled in the second one and Misty and Katie traveled together in the third one. When I checked on them one time, she was actually snuggled up against Katie! Where is that darn camera when you need it! That was definitely a Kodak moment, and one that I hope to see more of in the future!

It has become apparent that neither Noodle’s or my medical problems are going to end anytime soon, so I have started putting stock intended for my website into my eBay store. I need to sell a lot of things to come up with the co-payment for a treatment that I need, so please invite your friends to have a look around. I was diagnosed with Osteoporosis a few months ago on top of everything else, and I cannot take the pills because of other health problems. So my doctor wants me to get the once a year IV treatment called Reclast. I’m a little nervous because it can cause a certain kind of abnormal heart rhythm called atrial fibrillation. There is a very strong history of strokes in my family, and I just quadrupled my chance for having one when I developed diabetes. At this point however, I feel it is my only option since calcium supplements have not worked to prevent it. I’ve already had one spinal fusion, and although my outcome far surpassed what I had hoped for, it’s not something that I care to repeat! My dearest friend Olga, is also in the same boat, so I told her I would be the guinea pig this time around. Keep your fingers crossed, and please keep us in your prayers. I’ll let you know how it works out.
I will be redoing this page in the near future, with hyperlinks to most of the pictures to facilitate faster loading for those still on dial up. Please click on the links to see the babies pictures. Well, that is all the news from our camp. I hope all of you are enduring the economic downturn our nation is facing. I will be doing a blog soon, with helpful advice on stretching your dollar and I hope it will benefit you. We are all in this together, and if we can keep a cool head and try to help one another we will persevere! As always, I thank you for your kind bids and emails, and wish you and yours the very best. May God Bless you all!

Warm Wishes,
Suzy & The Babies