Doc is in surgery

[Cleo]

Praying this is the last of it and he'll be home soon. He's had enough injuries and surgeries now to last each of his 9 lives!

[Tina B and crew]

Doc went into surgery at around 11am EST. The surgeon said she would call me this afternoon and let me know how things went and what they found. I know he is in very capable and caring hands. I won't go visit him today, I want to let him recoup from surgery, but I should be able to get up tomorrow and see him.

[Traci]

Waiting on pins and needles, do you have an update yet? (I know you're waiting too).

Hang in the Doc, we're so pulling for you!

[Tina B and crew]

Nothing yet. She said it would be afternoon before she could call. It is 12:43 here.

[Tina B and crew]

Ok...Doc is out. I won't get too detailed but will say that the surgeon found more than she expected to find. As expected his spleen had the blood supply cut off, so it was already becoming necrotic. It was removed. His omentum was indurated (kind of hardened) and had a lot of inflammation. Because of the way some of the blood vessels run from the spleen his pancreas was in danger of having the blood supply cut off but that had not happened yet and it looked good although a wee bit enlarged. One of the arteries that supplies to his stomach had been cut off and the tissue was starting to be a little blue, but she is fairly confident that the capillaries will regenerate and it should be fine. One lobe of his liver was folded over but otherwise his liver looked normal. The surgery to fix the pyloric stenosis looked great and was healing just fine. All of these things have been biopsied (except the pancreas) just to make sure nothing was malignant. Every vet who has treated Doc has been rather flummoxed by him. He is a very unique medical case (hey, you think they will cut part of my bill because he's such a unique study??!!! Ha ha) Oh, and he is getting a esophageal feeding tube because she didn't want him to go much longer without eating because we DON'T need hepatic lipidosis!

Please pray that this is the final uphill battle for Doc and that things will progress smoothly from here on out. I need him to be well!

[Traci]

Tina, I just PM'd you.

Thank you so much for the update, our prayers are continuing for Doc and you, and I just want to say.....you are an ANGEL for going the extra mile for Doc!

As a matter of fact, you could definitely mention to them a potential literature case, and since there is so little research on pyloric stenosis in cats, this could help other cats and their vets in the future, imagine the possibility! VA Tech is more likely to be in the position to submit this, and your primary vet could be a co-author, etc, it would be a helpful submission to veterinary medicine. If they considered it, they very well might reduce your costs, it IS worth the mention.

[Tina B and crew]

Traci, I will email the attending surgeon and mention it to her. Like she said, he is a unique case all around. Go figure, I always get the unique cases, but I have also have several miracle kitties and I'm hoping he will be another miracle kitty!

[Traci]

He is, Tina, he's a very special boy, we already knew that!!

[k9Karen]

Poor baby - I hope he's on the mend and will be back to normal soon!

[Tina B and crew]

Got Doc's evening update. He was awake, fairly alert but on pain killers so definitely not as bright eyed as he was yesterday I'm sure. They are monitoring him very closely - heart rate, respiratory, temp etc. Thankfully the ICU is staffed 24/7 so if anything needs attention there is someone there ASAP. They will try to feed him tomorrow mid morning and we hope that goes well!! I should be able to arrange a visit tomorrow and can't wait to see the poor little guy. He has been through it and I just want him better so he can enjoy life again.

Thanks for the prayers...keep em coming, he has a long way to go yet!