The drop has been made

I was wondering whether I could give JonJon broth during the fast and actually found out on many vet sites that the 12 hour fast historically recommended is actually bad for cats, that 6-8 hours is preferable. Well that was a relief. I fed them their last "meal" at 11pm and then at 1:15 am he and the girl got a small wet snack (he gets turkey baby food). So since they're likely not going to start any procedures until 9 or after, that's a good enough window to be safe.

I actually took a Xanax at 1am in the hopes that it would knock me out good enough that he couldn't try to wake me up for treats like he does. Because my back was being uncooperative yesterday and I desperately needed to lie down as much as I could before this morning's festivities. Miraculously it worked and he slept in the tree. However like cats do, he knew something was up and around 7:40 he was still hunkered down and looking concerned. I had to pry his little claws off the tree and hold on to him tight to get him in the carrier. But thankfully I didn't get scratched and there was no escaping. Plenty of whining, naturally, but he's a Master Whiner anyway.

I made the ol' drop off at 8 and since they didn't send the paperwork in advance to me, they went over the estimate (upwards of $800 just for blood tests and xrays and such) and also signed off on the just in case stuff. I opt for non-invasive life saving procedures only. Both kitties are 10 years old now and if something bad enough happens, the last thing I want is for them to crack them open and do something so serious. If my kitty's heart is that bad, then he couldn't get the radioactive iodine treatment anyway and he wouldn't have all that much longer. So chest compressions only if something happens. Otherwise it's fate telling me it's time. But obviously hopefully none of that happens and he's healthy enough to proceed to his trip down South to NorthStar Vets on August 1.

Tentative good news

They didn't have to sedate Whiny McWhinerton (they did told me he cries a lot and I said "Yeah, that's par for the course with him. He's a whiner."). It did take a while because he'd emptied his bladder sometime earlier so he didn't have much in him and so they waited a bit and he ate a little of the wet food I sent with him to get a urine sample. Since he was anxious, they said he did a nervous poo nugget so since it's cheaper to do a blood/urine/fecal combo, they'll test that too since it's part of the package.

They noted that his chest x-rays so far don't look off but the doc will take a good look at them soon. They don't have the equipment on site to do an echo, but the folks at NorthStar Vets said they can do that when I bring him down August 1 for the consultation and if he passes, I'll leave him for treatment.

One thing I found to be very good news is that his weight is holding steady. He started off in March getting down to 11 pounds which since he's so tall, that's very skinny for him. After a month on the meds, he gained about .9 but we had to stop the meds and so all that I've been doing since the end of April is a modified diet of eliminating seafood (especially shrimp), most kelp and carrageenan and tapioca. His weight today was 11.9 so no loss! But the diet will only do so much and I'm sure his thyroid numbers are going up and he needs the more permanent treatment.

I was a nervous wreck while he was gone today. I'm going to have to get that under control for when he's gone 3-5 days for the radioactive iodine treatment. Though on that one I'm hoping that maybe if they have him on a different eating schedule, I can work on fixing the awful schedule we have now. Because I need SLEEP.

Now just for a few days of hissing and swatting by the girl to deal with.