Medical woes in multiple directions

[seventhe]

I am sitting in the waiting room of Lab Corp right now waiting for my blood draw (with bonus peeing test). I haven't eaten breakfast. I haven't had coffee. These are both cardinal sins in SevLand. It has been an expensive and depressing week for health in SevLand. (edit: I was interrupted for the test and am now happily seated at my desk with coffee post-breakfast.)

Yesterday I took Marzy in for his echocardiogram checkup. His heart murmur has gotten no better; while it's still better than it was at his very first visit (when he wasn't on any drugs or anything), it's worse than his last checkup. The obstruction in his heart is getting worse and the walls of his heart are thickening (from overwork), and while they were examining him they did see one fully stopped beat, which means he is at the maximum dose of atenolol he can be on. The thickening and the obstruction are so bad that they're starting to worry about heart failure and blood clots -- although he is still asymptomatic at home, which is still a good sign amidst all the bad news.

They've put him on another drug, one that will help prevent blood clots. There's a small chance that this new drug will act synergistically with his current dose to improve the murmur - it isn't a proven thing with the drug, but they've seen it happen in a few cases, so it is worth trying. It's an additional $10-14/month I guess (more expensive for humans but apparently I get a break because cats?) and he has to go back in 6 months for another echo.

I was pretty upset yesterday. I cried in the car on the way to giant eagle to get his new drugs, and then accidentally a diet coke from the store while I was waiting and cleaned myself up in the bathroom. My poor little baby and his little broken heart. He is so lucky that I found him and kept him, because i am a crazy cat lady who will pay $$$ to take care of him, and probably no one would have even found it until it was too late. Asshole. I love my cats more than I have loved anything ever and I hate it.

Plus I've got all these medical bills coming in (X-rays haven't shown up yet, but just refilled my inhaler, I look, $120) and physical therapy coming up and I may not be doing a whole lot of anything come September because dollars.

Bodies. Why.

Comments

[ser_pounce_alot]

once i get on national health insurance, i am going to be really happy japan isn't balls awful with this whole health thing, cause seriously, america. the horror stories of people who can't afford your overpriced shit. seriously. :/

i hope marzy gets better! ♥

[novel_machinist]

<3 He knows you love him and he will vom on everything to prove it.

Also, yeah... September will have to be a recharge month for me too. We should have "Not talk to each other and play sims" weekend.

[seventhe]

that sounds like a good recharging activity. yes.

[whitemage]

Keeping you all in my thoughts. <3 I'm glad he has you.

[deadcellredux]

Marzy is so lucky to have you!!! I feel the same way about Reznor. When he got diagnosed with the DIABEETUS it was a pretty horrible, in terms of stress and expenses and weekly vet visits and giving him two injections a day exactly 12 hours apart and making sure he didn't puke after eating so that he wouldn't go into diabetic shock and test his pee every day and clean his ass because he stopped cleaning himself AT ALL for some reason, etc etc jkdgadfklj

You wouldn't BELIEVE how many people (who I thought were sane) actually went so far to suggest that I just PUT HIM TO SLEEP instead of dealing with his illness, or give him away to a shelter. So, you know, he could just DIE THERE instead. Like most people I told about it were just like "are you crazy? Just get rid of him" about my PET that I've had for YEARS.

It's amazing how heartless people can be when it comes to animals. I GUESS MY ACTUAL POINT IS: OUR PETS ARE LUCKY TO HAVE SUCH WONDERFUL MOMMIES.

I hope things get better for Marzy with his new drugs.

[lassarina]

Marzy is lucky to have you. ♥