Wednesday Update on Mr. Max

I apologize for not updating since last week! A busy weekend with not much sleep, up and down good and bad but overall good. Here is what I posted on Tuesday on social media…

Mr. Max discovers the joy of WARM CONCRETE!! Guessing from his reaction he has never experienced it before. Now it’s all he wants to do when we go outside.

He has done well over the weekend to now, and continues. I had mentioned a medication, Chlorambucil, he’d be starting whenever it arrived in the mail. It arrived Saturday just before I was leaving for Rock the Quarry. I was concerned with all its possible side effects giving it to him when I’d be gone 10-12 hours. My veterinarian said I should start it as soon as possible since he wasn’t eating, so I did. When I got home about 12:15 am he had eaten all his food and felt great. Ate well on Sunday when I was at farmers market.

I was in the studio Sunday night and all day yesterday finishing a portrait due today (I got the date wrong). Yesterday he ate 4-5 ounces of food–on his own, YAY!

Also yesterday, after his third dose, he developed a side effect of facial and body twitches to an extent at one point when he almost fell down, and seemed miserable, but still ate. My veterinarian said to skip the fourth dose of the first set and start with the next set tomorrow. Today the twitches are nearly gone and he’s back to himself.

I hope this continues to work. I still need to get the ultrasound to see whether or not he has lymphoma and just to get a better picture and set some plans one way or the other. For now, finally, he might actually get to recover with this medication three doses/week for the next three weeks.

Rock the Quarry was fun as always with good sales of my artwork, and the farmers market was a great day now that we have this little space of autumn-like weather!

No markets this weekend so I’ll be back to posting more often.

Keep sending those purrs for Mr. Max!!

A little extra

One thing I forgot to add in that post was that when I got home on Saturday night/Sunday morning he had pooped! The first time in a week! Don’t know how I forgot that detail. But I’m guessing the Chlorambucil had reduced something enough that it could get through. And he kept pooping, and then he really started eating. It has me more than a little hopeful because no one has found or seen a mass in his intestines, though one could be there, but the Chlorambucil reduces inflammation in cases of IBD. Trying not to make too much of that.

That portrait—I started it Thursday and sent the woman an update on Friday, but didn’t get back to it until Sunday night. Both Sunday and Monday night I was up until 3:00 a.m. working on it, and even Tuesday morning she wanted a slight change, which was fine with me. I did that as she drove here with the frame. She was thrilled, and her husband will be totally surprised. All worth it. But last evening after that and Mr. Max and cleaning up after all those busy days I could hardly keep my eyes open and went to bed at the early hour of 10:45!

So Tuesday…

Mr. Max was disappointed that his sidewalk wasn’t at all sunny, so he contented himself with the garden and some nice warm dirt. Much softer than concrete.

I could see the twitches were still there, but faint, but he ate less and less through the day. I’m guessing the Chlorambucil was having an effect because he was losing some ground without that dose.

Wednesday

Before meds or anything I decided he needed a sunbath. There was no sun in our yard this morning front or back, typical of my yard this time of year until the leaves fall, but the deck is sunny. So we went out on the deck where the wooden boards get nice and cozy warm. He settled in a sunny spot then moved around and followed the sun for a while.

While we were out there I heard the little metal hummingbird windchime tinkle, which sounds like little bells. I have it in the flower bed next to the side steps on my deck, on the side of the house, along with a bird bath. I have so many cardinals in my yard and they love that birdbath, landing on the windchime on a hooked stake in the ground, then flying up to the bird bath. It felt like kind of a sign, one that I might not want to hear, like an angel getting its wings, or a sign that he was being called home. I guess time will tell.

He has no appetite today despite Mirataz. I gave him his usual meds and fluids, then started syringe feeding him so he’d have food in his stomach when I gave him today’s dose of Chlorambucil. He was pretty wobbly and weak and I could still see slight twitches, but he’s pooped again and he’s more balanced and alert now, at 7:30 p.m. He has a few twitches, but not much more than earlier today. I was gone for 10 hours when I gave him his first dose so I don’t know how long it takes to take effect.

After is sunbath on the deck he went down the deck steps and I carried him from there to the sort of sunny brick patio by the basement door but he wanted and adventure and didn’t seem to notice the wet grass. You can see he is headed for the turquoise wicker loveseat again. He doesn’t interact with it but he heads there, then walks around a bit.

We headed back toward the house and by that time the concrete step outside the basement door was in full sun and very warm. I put him there and he got it right away. It was clear his adventure had been tiring so he settled down, getting up and adjusting himself a few times, while Sienna watched over him.

I hope he voluntarily eats a little bit before the end of the day today, but if not I’ll keep syringe-feeding him. I’m guessing from others’ experience with chemotheraphy drugs this is to be expected. I’m not ready to give up on him yet because I don’t feel he is ready yet, even if it’s only for one more sunbath on the sidewalk. But mostly because no one has found a mass or masses in his intestines and it just seems and feels as if they are very inflamed. That might be tamed with this medication in time.

The ultrasound

That’s why I’m still planning on the ultrasound. I made an appointment for an ultrasound on September 10 when the veterinary hospital called me after my veterinarian’s referral. I can also go into their urgent care and it’s the same cost as if I’d gone to an appointment, $455 and possibly more for an extra view, medications, etc. I am excited that Hearts and Paws, the organization whose event I attend each June, gave me a grant for $300 toward his ultrasound. I didn’t earn enough in sales this weekend to swing it myself, but I will be selling an original painting next week and maybe some other things too so I can get to that ultrasound next week and know more that much sooner. If I had the presence of mind for it I’d do a sketch or a painting of Mr. Max and auction it off or something, but I don’t have the presence of mind to focus on him in that way, and I’m trying to put my time into paying work right now.

Thanks for following Mr. Max’s journey here, and mine. It’s been a long two years of loss.

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