The children attended Saint Francis Xavier Day Service today in All Saints Cathedral and received the Lord's blessings.
Stella, who is my last child joined the family on 1st October, just in time for this service and received a lot of warm complements.
Kitty the Angel, shall turn 9 on 6h October. Miss you dear! Time flies, but precious memories remain warmly tugged in our mind. We are truly grateful to Kitty for being a perfect role model to Goldie, who passed the technique to Betty and Felix. Stella will hopefully master the skills brilliantly to create a warm, harmonious, loving and caring family for all.
We attended the Pet Accessories Show on 22nd-25th September. Apart from shopping for the kids, we continue to make our best effort to gather samples to help less fortunate children. Overall, we were pretty happy with the result, although we were not that aggressive this time.
I like these free keychains the most... its a surprised that we found a Betty look alike, while a bit difficult to get a perfect resemblance for Felix
Thank God, Felix's life is slowly returning to normal..... Let's take each day as a gift and have fun, dear!
Each morning, the children have their 2 rounds of breakfast at 5am and 9am respectively. Usually, Felix will monitor auntie's activities and escort her to the kitchen..... haha
What is Felix looking at?
Its 14th July in the Lunar calendar. Fits the theme? Scary?
Recently, Felix likes to lie near the kitchen - learning to cook? making sure no food tasting? .... haha
We started the month of July in tranquility until Vet decided to let Felix take Clavet to kill the bacteria in his system. They are aware that he is allergic to Penicillin group of medicine, but believed its worth a try with careful monitoring, as this medicine could kill the bacteria, while Doxy could only inhibit future bacteria growth and let the immune system overtakes them.
Upon starting to take Clavet on 7th July, saw him scratching his neck area a bit. Things turned worse on 17th July, as he started to lick his tummy aggressively, and rashes also appeared in his temporal, ear, chin areas. They came on and off upon applying iodine. Raised to the attention of the vet, who happened to be off till 21/7. No one in the clinic was ready to advise, except to stop the medication on 18/7. Things turned worse after the rashes flared out, with daily vomiting, usually between 3am-5.30am, especially after drinking water. On 20/7, I sent an update email to Dr Tint, in preparation for his return to the clinic on 21/7. Luckily Dr Tint called shortly and asked to see him on the next day.
Because its a full day surgery for Dr Tint, after hearing our update, Felix stayed in the clinic for further examination and pick up at 6pm. After blood test and ultra-sound, everything appears normal. So the conclusion was a delayed drug allergy, which might take longer to heal. I made a quick decision to let him stay in hospital for a few days of drips with hope to alleviate the allergy faster. He stayed in hospital for 3 days, with "red belly" turning paler, but he developed diarrhea. Anyway, on 24/7 we decided to take him home, as he should feel more comfortable using his bigger toilet at home.
Things slowly improved, though the "wet poo" come and go. By 29/7, color in the belly is close to normal, and rashes in the head were healed. There is no daily early morning vomiting since 27/7. Hope this is the beginning of a good recovery track.
The purpose of this blog is to document what happened to the the kids. Because a lot have happened, I plan to document them by date, which would be long winded and uninteresting to our readers. Our apologies.
Never, would I have thought May and June are such difficult months. Weeping is one of my natural response to all the frustrations (not aware that foreign parts inside a body is actually a good hiding place for bacteria, making infections very difficult to heal completely), fear (of loosing Felix, risks associated with each move), pain (that Felix has to go through and the uncertain result).
Frankly, I have thought of giving up, but Felix's determined eyesight, his strong will, love towards the family (greeting only family members with his clear loud meow) and young age swept out this thought.
What have I learn't
- foreign objects inside the body is a site for bacteria to hide, making cure of infections very difficult. At the time of the second surgery, the most common comment is he needs a permanent stent. Now the verdict is the stent is a curse and is the root of the latest problem. Another problem with this expandable metallic stent is that it cannot be removed. A removal would require a by-pass which is a very high risk surgery with the risk that bacteria from the intestine could flow to the liver. So a never ending game.
- Life has its own destiny. It might seem I have dragged on taking the surgery option by around 2 weeks. But at least during that moment, we have exhausted "all" medical means or the lowest risk choice. When the time for surgical option, the Lord guided us via a fast path - the sequence was as follows, and even now I marvel it as a miracle
- Met Dr Lawren on 9/6 and accepted the fact the surgery is the best option for Felix
- I called VSH on the morning of 10/6 enquiring on the queuing time for surgery. The receptionist told me Dr Alane will go on vacation from 20/6 and wont return till August. My immediate thinking was Felix doesnt stand a chance to get it done so quickly (within 10 days).
- So I updated Dr Lawren who is making the referral. She made it an urgent case.
- Believe it or not, at 12.35pm of that day (10/6), I missed the mobile call and they called home. Told me to bring Felix over before 2pm for an emergency consultation. Lucky both VSH and Soares are just nearby, so we made our appointment on time.
- After the half hour consultation, Dr Alane decided to operate on Felix shortly. By coincidence Felix had his last meal at 4-5am that day. So is on empty stomach for over 10 hours.
- Everyone was surprised with the swift prompt action, giving Felix a safety buffer - chance to fall under Dr Alane's care for over 9 days if need be.
This series of events is a living proof that the Lord cares about His children (human and pet alike) and will have things diligently planned for them in times of need.
THANKS BE TO GOD!
Chronological order of events:
14/5
- Felix vomited and the ALT rose mildly to 275. Vet gave him back the Marbofloxacin with the hope that things could return to normal. Recheck 3-7 days later.
- During this week, changed one of his CTM to Long Dan Xia Gan Tang on 18-21/5
21/5 - 8/6
- The ALT shot up to the roof. to 3549. So no choice but to be hospitalized receiving intravenous medication.
- Unlike in the past, the improvement came fairly slowly. Ringing an alert to us.
- Met vet on 27/5, suggest the need for biopsy with laparoscope. Initially scheduled for 31/5, but was called off by me on the better improvement in blood test readings and concern that laparoscope might not work for patients who had open up operation.
- Did 5 days IV liver oxidation, but not much progress. So decided to seek advise from Dr Lawren, Internal Specialist
9/6
- Discharged and met Dr Lawren.
- Conclusion - surgery is the best option and refer to Dr Alane of VSH
10 - 15/6
- Readmitted to Soares in the morning with marginal fever (39.5 degrees) and no appetite.
- Phone call at 12.30pm from VSH telling us to be there by 2pm for a emergency appointment. Dr Alane will go on leave from 20/6 and return in August
- Dr Alane decided to operate on him shortly after the meeting - take biopsy for culture and pathology. Clear the biliary duct, removed part of the stent which is not working (only 20% left and is stuck to the flesh).
- Felix the tough fighter recovered well. With slight fever for 2 days and started earing on his own after surgery.
- Delayed his discharge till day 5 post operation as wont confine his movement while at home.
Rapid explosion of Omnicron in Hong Kong is creating a lot of adverse pressure in everyone's daily life. Apart from irrational behavior from the general public such as hoarding of food, medicine and daily essentials, the supply shortage also drove prices sky high. Apart from staying vigilant, we can only pray that herd immunity would soon arise.
At home, Felix's liver condition suddenly relapsed. This time Dr Tint kept a very close eye on him and luckily, he responded well to treatment. He just revisited Dr. Tint today, and his liver reading is nearly back to normal @133 (upper normal is 130). Just pray that I could resolve his choice of cat litter and his life could soon return to normal.
Betty remains in good condition. She prefers clay litter, but unfortunately those available in the market are in very fine clumps, and sticks to her fur when she splashes the litter around. I'm now slowly trying to help her adjust to the smell of Tofu cat litter. I'm planning to give it a month's time to do this. So far she is slowly adapting. Thank you dear, Betty
