can our family get a break, please?

Yesterday's good news was that the infectious disease Dr took me off antibiotics (after 2 1/2 weeks) because he saw no more sign of infection.  Today's good news was that, after three phone calls to MD Anderson, they finally called to tell me they scheduled surgery for 1/17.  A next step -- hooray.  Of course, the nurse who called told me I would need to spend two weeks in Houston (really?!  I was prepared for one) following the outpatient surgery, so we're in negotiations about that.


But the sad news today is that Smokey, our 10 year old cat, is spending the night in the hospital.  Ben picked this cat out at the shelter Labor Day weekend 2003, when my folks were visiting.  Smokey grew from fluff ball to big kitty pretty quickly.  The year before Val arrived he tipped the scale at 15 pounds, and the vet told us to put him on diet food (RD -- Reducing Diet).  He lost a pound, but then the dog came, and while he remained on RD, he actually gained weight.  Of course, as Bill frequently pointed out, that had to do in part with our working from home.  He either had a full bowl, or he was swatting at the mice on our desks.  This cat greeted everyone who walked in the door, demanding pets, or some acknowledgement.  He also gave love bites.  And he let Scott Yates (but none of us), lift him high in the air and turn him upside down.  (He also bit Scott's boots.)  He fought Val for the highly desirable front hall carpet and prevailed about half the time.  He also groomed Val periodically (because we know that no dog is clean according to a cat's standards). 


By late 2012 he weighed 17 pounds.  A week ago, I caught him eating the dog's food when she'd be interrupted in her meal by a walk.  But New Year's Day he didn't eat.  The vet on Saturday detected an arrhythmia, although his blood work came back normal.  He didn't eat for the last couple days, though, even after I bought him real food.  So this morning we got serious.  Bill spent four hours at the vet hospital this afternoon (Ben and I spent two, after Ben got out of school -- what a great first day back).  They did an Xray and an echocardiogram.  Put him on oxygen and a diuretic, which can apparently help with the heart disease.  He's got both an enlarged heart and thinning of the muscle walls.  The outlook is not good.  Bill and I might have made a different decision (even if he responds to treatment, the vet called his disease "end stage" so we're talking a few months), but Ben wasn't ready.  And Smokey is his cat.  So we'll hope Smokey responds to treatment over night.  And if not, we'll reassess in the am.  Meanwhile, I'll take Ben out there one more time tonight during visiting hours.  We can't hold him, but we can pet him through the little window in the oxygen tank.