Hello Again

Once again I seem to have fallen down the blogging rabbit hole and almost disappeared. I can't believe its been nearly three months since I last posted. I have also been really bad at commenting on all our friends blogs too, even though I've been catching up on reading them when I can. I've been very saddened to hear of the number of our friends who have been ill, injured or who are no longer with us and my heart is heavy with sadness for their loss.

We've had a fairly intense time recently and I'll try to backtrack and write some proper updates soon to let you know what has been happening.

 

Our cat news is that beloved Magic does have acromegaly, which is a tumour on her pituitary gland, and this is what is driving her extreme insulin resistance. Her blood sugars have been resolutely high, usually in the mid-twenties, and she is now on 21 units of insulin glargine twice daily. This is an horrendous amount for a little cat, and worse is that managing it this way is simply not working.

So, I feel my hand has been forced, and that the only reasonable route is to take her for neurosurgery. This is scheduled for next month in London as this is the only place in the UK that the surgery is available. Although it is a commonplace treatment option in humans there are only 21 cats who have had this surgery so far with 18 surviving it. These are not ideal odds but she is only going to get sicker. Providing Magic survives the surgery and immediate post-operative period the outlook is that she will return to either not needing insulin or be managed as a 'normal' type two diabetic on small doses of insulin. She has had her pre-operative assessment in Glasgow this week and though she has some liver and renal issues she is as fit as she can be until the root of the problem is dealt with  Obviously I have lots of jumbled feelings about this, and quite a few I am trying to suppress, but I will try to share our journey with you.

Red remains as sweet and gorgeous as ever. He is a little joy even though it is hard for him as Magic is so voraciously hungry all the time that she can be quite aggressive and bullies him terribly him at mealtimes. They now have to be separated for meals and Red had gone off his food which was worrying as he is really a just a light fluffy string bean of a cat. However, I realised it was just some distress and routine disturbance and splashed out on some Applaws sachets to tempt his palate. Thankfully his appetite returned with the taste of some tuna and pacific prawns!

Recently he's been coming up to sleep on my lap when I am watching TV to enjoy a snuggle and he particularly likes his hand held as he goes to sleep. He first did this when Magic was in ITU at the vet hospital last year as he slept at the top of my pillow and wriggled about until I took his proffered paw and only then did he settle and sleep. Funnily enough jumbo fluffy paw holding seems to make me nod off too.

The rollercoaster of life simply hasn't slowed and all we can do is hang onto each other and hope the destination is worth the journey!