update!

SUP INNERNETS!!! I am sorry it has been so long since I have posted. I know some of you have been worried about me but DO NOT WORRY, innernets friends, I am doing fine! I am still ginormous and me and my man paws and my very large whisker humps are doing well!

I have been on my Enalapril and my Lasix for almost two months now and I am back to acting like my normal man cat self. I love my FOODS, and Sophie BUGS ME sometimes, and I like to sit on the side of the persons water box and mraw mraw mraw, and I knock things off the dresser at night and I hump my Person and I am VERY dignified. If you didn't know my heart was broked, you would think I am just a big dude going about his big dude life. Except for the parts of me that they undignifiedly shaved. Those are still growing back.

I am sorry that I have not been very good at updating and that I made some of you worried! I promise to try to be better because there are still many THINGS I feel the world should know about, like how Sophie is afraid of string cheese (HELLO IT IS CHEESE) and how I just ate some Cheez-Its today, and how there's a bunny that lives with us now and he is weird. Whatever.

My Person also asked me to beg your forgiveness because she is still working on thank-yous for everyone who donated us the dollaz. I don't really beg on account of I'm a big dude but she is sorry.

To prove to you that I am still me, here is a pikshur! I am not one to brag but I am still pretty handsome, even with a broked heart.



Also, innernets, I really want to thank you again for all the purrs you sent my way when I was not feeling so good and was spending lots of time camping in oxyjin tents. They made me feel better but they REALLY made my Person feel like she was not so alone. It is normally my job to do that, and you really stepped in when I couldn't do it for her. So thank you again. You guys are awesome, and not just cuz you respect the whisker humps, if you know what I mean.

The verdict

I JUST got back from my check-up at the VETS. My Person came home in the middle of the day and I WAS excited, because I like my Person, on account of she gives me the foods, but she just came in and gave me and Sophie a treat (which, don't get me started, why does SOPHIE get a treat, did SHE have to go to the VETS, I DON'T THINK SO) and scooped me up and put me in the prison box. But I have to tell you, innernets, that even though I pretty much figured I was going to the VETS, because these days I am always going to the VETS, I didn't really mind the prison box so much, because I like riding in the car.

Don't worry, though, because as soon as we got to the VETS I started growling and mrawing and hissing and just generally letting everyone there know that yes, I am a big dude, and you shouldn't mess with me. They took me into the examinayshun room and my Person opened the prison box, and then all sorts of VETS people started coming in because they wanted to see me and how I was doing. I don't know how they knew me, though. I mean, I spent a lot of time at the VETS recently, but those people see a lot of cats, so I figure they must know me from my fame on the innernets and from my fame from just being a big dude. Anyway, they all said I was handsome and didn't try to touch me, so I didn't mind that too much, especially since they were all lady persons, which are my favorite kind, if you know what I mean.

Anyway, they weighed me, and I have gained back a whole pound, which made my Person happy because for awhile there I was not very interested in my foods (I KNOW, RIGHT?) and I lost about two pounds. Don't worry, though, innernets, even when I was down two pounds, I was still really big, and you can't lose weight in your whisker humps or your paws so it never really showed.

Then the VETS came in and he just blabbed and blabbed to my Person about this medicine and that medicine. I didn't really listen because I was very busy being on the floor and sniffing everything out. I did let that VETS pet me once though because he did kinda save my life that one time (okay, a few times). But I only let him pet me ONCE because I don't want him getting the wrong idea. And when he tried to listen to my heart and my lungs I made sure to growl REAL loud so he couldn't hear anything. HAHA!

Since I wasn't really LISTENING, I can't tell you everything he said, but I can tell you that he said I look great and seem to be doing great, and he is real excited that I gained some weight, and that since last week I have been on some heart medicines (something called Enalapril and something called Lasix, and I take them every morning, and let me tell you that I don't even MIND, because those medicines come inside a chicken envelope, and I like me some CHICKEN!) and they are really agreeing with me, unlike the medicine I tried that one time (Altenolol) that most definitely disagreed with me, because after I took it I had to spend more time in the oxyjin tent. I like camping as much as the next dude, but I didn't like that tent so much. I would much rather build a blanket fort and hang out with my Person.

Also, my Person is real bad at things, and wants everyone to know that she still has to get around to thanking everyone in the mail for helping us with my VETS bills. I tried to yowl at her and I humped her leg a little to remind her but she's a person, you know, and it was hard enough for me to train her to turn the faucet on when I'm thirsty and to give me my foods when I want it so I'm not sure how much else I can do. I think the point is that she will do it very very soon, and that she thinks about all of my friends every day, and then she gets all sappy and tries to hug me and sometimes I just have STUFF TO DO, PERSON, AND I CAN'T JUST BE HUGGING ALL DAY LONG.

Anyways, I hope that now my blog can just be about me and my man cat-ness and not so much with the VETS because the VETS is boring. I am the main attraction!

The story of my heartsounds

Hello, innernets! I am sober now (it took awhile) and so I can tell you the full story of my ultrasound!

To begin with, the ultrasounds place is very far away from where we live in Virjinya. So we had to ride in the car for a LONG time. One of the persons my Person knows took us in her car and my Person let me sit on her lap the whole time instead of in my prison box. Before we left I inspected the car very thoroughly to make sure there were no foods or other cats or anything vishus hiding in it because you just never know. Unforchunitly, I did not find any foods, but I did walk around on the dashboard for awhile. And while we were driving, I made sure to stand up on my Person's lap and put my very big paws on the windowsill and look outside. I saw some cows (beef!) and I made eyes at lots of other persons in cars but let me tell you, innernets, persons driving in cars are not very ATTENTIVE because none of them seemed to notice me. I can only assume that the car we were in had one-way glass because I don't think there is much of a chance that you could drive by me looking out a window and not notice me, on account of my whisker humps are so big.

When we finally got to the ultrasounds place, my Person put my back in the prison box and we went inside. While my Person was filling out paperwork, some other persons came out with a big brown dog and sat next to my prison box and I growled and hissed at him. And my Person said, "Sorry. He just has a lot of rage." and then the lady person behind the counter made those other persons move the dog away from my prison box, probably because she knew that I could bust out of there and take that dog down if I wanted to. HAHA!

Then they called us back, and my Person carried my prison box into an examinayshun room. She let me out and I prowled around growling while she talked to various VETS persons. And then the actual VETS came in and he grabbed me by my neck and INJECTED ME WITH POISON. I know it was poison because right after he gave it to me I vommed on the floor. And then he waited awhile and I didn't get sleepy, on account of I AM BIG and also because it takes a lot to take down a man cat, so then he INJECTED ME WITH MORE POISON and then I passed out.

Look, I am not PROUD of the passing out, and I woke up with a bunch of my chest hairs gone and some nasty GOO all over me, but at least I know that while I was passed out my eyes didn't close and that really freaked out my Person. That will SHOW HER! YOU DON'T MESS WITH THE KIS-MAN, LADY!

They held me down on a table while they waited for me to wake up and the VETS explained everything about my heart to my Person. I have leaky valves and my heart wall is thick and one of my atriums is enlarged. This is all just fancy talk for my heart doesn't work as good as it should and it makes stuff back up into my lungs, which is why I have been having trouble breathing. They are going to start me on medicines soon, but my regular VETS wants to talk to a heart doctor first because they tried to put my on heart medicines last week and I had a bad reaction to one. I AM A MEDICAL MYSTERY, INNERNETS!

While we wait to hear about the medicines, my Person and I are just hanging out. Today we watched some DVDs and I made biskits on her for awhile, and she fed me some Temptations and some Friskies. Now that I am sober, I am acting as normal as I can because I know it makes my Person feel good.


looking manly. I have to be the little spoon, on account of my Person is bigger than me, but we both know I'm the big spoon in the relationship.

Thanks again for all of your help and purrs, innernets! I will let you know how my heart is doing when I get started on my medicines. I am not happy to have a broked heart, but I am a pretty big dude and I think I will manage with it just fine.

my heart

Innernets, I am a little drunk from anesthesia still, so I will write my whole post of RAGE tomorrow, but I just wanted to stop by and let you all know that my heart is a little broked. I have hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, and three of my heart valves are leaking. I am okay right now, and I am going to start medicines soon, and the VETS people said I was very grumpy and I vommed in their room (HAHA), but my heart is a little broked. My Person and I are both tired, so I will give you the full story tomorrow after we sleep and I am SOBER!

Ultrasounds are ultra LAME

O HAI INNERNETS.

As you can see, I am still very handsome. I just wanted to show you some recent pictures of me so you would all know that despite my ongoing medical issues, my whisker humps have not gotten smaller and I am still pretty goodlookin'. (Feel free to click on those and make them bigger, laydeez.)

I go for my ultrasound on Friday, to the VETS. Apparently this is a NEW VETS, because my Person had to call them today to make sure they knew that my other VETS doesn't want me sedaytid for the ultrasound. The person on the phone said, "Well, it depends on the cat, I mean, we might not have to sedate him." And my Person goes, "No, Kismet will hate you. You would normally want to sedate him." And the lady person tried to argue and my Person just said, "No. He will HATE YOU." so then they had to arrange for the VETS to call her back because apparently I am just that big and vishus. HAHA! BETTER GET YOUR HAWK GLOVES READY, NEW VETS!

But this whole ultrasound thing is stupid if you ask me, because I am breathing pretty okay now and I am also much less sneezy (though it was kind of fun to be sneezy cuz a) it rhymes with Skeezy, who's one of my best buds in the innernets and b) sometimes I got snots all over my Person, and that was funny) and I am also eating my Friskies so I don't think more persons need to be listening in on my heartbeats because I AM FINE. But it does mean a long ride in the car, and my Person said one of her other person friends is driving us so I get to sit on my Person's lap and explore and watch out the windows. Which is good, because between you and me, innernets, my Person is so bad at exploring just around the 'partment that I can't imagine what she's like in the car, so it's a good thing I will be there to stand guard. There are lots of vishus stuff out there, Person!

Anyway, I will let you know when we find anything out, which we won't, cuz I'm pretty sure I'm fine, on account of my man paws are still big and so are my whisker humps, and that is pretty much how I decide how I am doing, if you know what I mean.

I AM BACK

Sup innernets. This is KISMET MAN CAT, TAKING BACK MY BLOG. Look, I know that I have been feeling sick, but that is NO EXCUSE for my Person to take over MY BLOG. So now that I am home from my second night in the oxyjin tent, I thought I would come update you MYSELF, on account of this is MY BLOG, PERSON.

Basically, the VETS don't know what is wrong with me. They say my heart has a murmur which I think means when they put on their heart-listen-y thing it talks to them, but I don't understand why this is a bad thing, because if they don't WANT it to murmur at them then WHY are they putting on their heart-listen-y thing to listen to it? PERSONS, THEY MAKE NO SENSE.

Anyhoo, so I spent last night in the oxyjin tent and then today at the VETS the VETS were all confyoozed. "He is fine," they said to my Person. "His breething is good, his heart rate is good, and he is eating." (It's true, I did eat the foods at the VETS. I am not proud of this because normally I go on a HUNGER STRIKE at the VETS, but it was free FOODS and I was kind of wanting the FOODS.) When my Person came to pick me up I yowled at her a LOT, and the VETS said they wanted to take a X-ray and could my Person help hold me, because they tried to do it themselves and I wouldn't let them (HAHA!), and so my Person carried me into the X-ray room but I MRAWED and MRAWED and then I ESCAPED from the X-ray room and ran around outside in the other VETS room, and finally they said, just take him home. HAHA!

I am a little sneezy currently, but I am on my noomoanya medicines, and apparently I am having some sort of ultrasound soon (I think that is where they turn up the volume on my heart murmur so it makes a ULTRA noise so they can ULTRA hear it). All I know is that I am home and I am cleaning my whisker humps LOTS so that I don't smell like VETS, and that the VETS better not mess with the man cat, because even when I do not FEEL well, I will not let them do things like X-rays. HAHA!

I also want to thank all my friends on the innernets for sticking by me and my blog even though my Person took it over for awhile. I really appreciate your well wishes and I promise not to sneeze on you or in your general direction.

Kismet Update

Hi everybody - Kismet is back at the vet in the oxygen tent tonight. I made him an appointment for the heart ultrasound but I couldn't get him in until the 22nd. I called my vet, who said he'd like to try to start Kismet on a small dosage of heart medicine in the meantime. I gave him one of the pills when I got home today and two hours later he was crashing again. Not as bad as last time - in that he is alert and lucid - but he was panting and couldn't breathe (and was drooling. Lots of drool). I called my vet, and he opened up the clinic for us, gave Kismet a diuretic shot and put him back on oxygen.

I am less panicky this time because it was a little more expected, and also because although he couldn't breathe, Kismet was more alert. I asked my vet if I need to consider putting him down because I can't keep doing this to him, I can't keep watching him suffer, and my vet said we should wait and see how he is in the morning. He also said that it's not uncommon for people with heart conditions to be hospitalized a few times before they get their meds right, so we shouldn't jump to conclusions with Kismet. He also said that if we need to give him a daily dosage of the diuretic until he's stabilized, we can.

The night vet tech will be checking on him at 10 and they'll call me if there's a problem. Otherwise, I'm supposed to call tomorrow. Please keep purring and praying for Kismet. I am calmer, but I am also terrified that my phone is going to ring at 10 pm.

Also - thank you so, so much for all of your donations. Almost half of Kismet's bills will be paid off because of your generosity. People who donated will be receiving better thank-yous in the mail, but in the meantime I wanted you all to know that it hasn't gone unnoticed. And neither has the support you've shown me and Kismet.

Please keep thinking of him tonight.

Man Cat Miracles

Hi everyone - this is Kismet's Person, taking over his blog to give you a Kismet update, which will probably anger him, which should tell you that so far, he is doing much better. :)

If you haven't been following the Kismet Situation, here are links to the posts that Skeezix made after I emailed him:
One: http://skeezixsscratchingpost.blogspot.com/2010/01/emerjensy-purrrayer-reqwest.html
Two: http://skeezixsscratchingpost.blogspot.com/2010/01/kismet-update.html

The background is basically this: I took Kismet to the vet on Monday because I noticed on Sunday that he was breathing a little quickly. Nothing labored or congested, just a little faster than normal. My vet took X-rays and found abnormalities on his lungs that she thought was asthma. She gave him a shot of antibiotics and a shot of steroids and sent him home.
Within a half hour of him being home, he started to crash. Severely. I don't want to go into detail about what it was like, because I don't want to think about it. It was awful, and terrifying, and painful, and when I put him in his carrier to take him to the emergency vet a half hour away, I wasn't very convinced he would make it through the drive. They put him in an oxygen tent, told me they thought he was having congestive heart failure and was close to dying, that I had to leave him overnight, and to come get him at 7 am. I called them at 6 before I left my house to see how he was doing and all the tech told me was that he was still on oxygen and still having trouble breathing, so I assumed I was going there to put him down.

But then I got there, and the ER vet came in and said, "Well, he's doing better."

I hate the emergency vet's office, by the way. It is scary and they are not very compassionate. They discharged him with the X-rays they took and we took him back to my regular vet, who's been treating him ever since. (This is a basic recap of what Skeezix posted. I would have come here to blog about it myself then but I was not in any condition to do so.)

My vet wasn't sure what was wrong with him. They thought it was a combination of pneumonia/asthma and possibly a heart condition; most likely hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. I asked if they could try to treat the pneumonia first, and they agreed. They started him on the pneumonia medication that day and he started to improve pretty quickly. I went to visit him Tuesday afternoon to try to get him to eat, and I couldn't, but he was alert, up, walking around, and VERY growly. Which again, for Kismet, is a good sign; his rage toward all things veterinarian is well-documented and meant, to me, that he was feeling more like himself.

I left him there overnight and called yesterday morning to check on him. My vet said he was about the same, maybe a little better, and that they thought it would be a good idea for me to take him home for the night because he still wasn't eating. My vet and I both thought that the not-eating was probably more a product of being at the vet and being stressed out than of his illness (he was eating totally normally up through Monday morning, which is the day this all started). So I went to pick him up. When I got there the vet was busy so the techs told me to go back and see if I could get him to eat. When I got to his cage, Kismet was alert, VERY happy to see me, meowing, and he ate for me almost instantly! Not a lot, not like he normally would, but both some dry and wet food, which is GREAT!

I took him home, and he drank a bunch of water, ate some more dry food, fought with Sophie, tried to eat some flowers I had in a vase, and then spooned with me on the couch. I got him to eat a few bites of wet food, fed him a bunch of Temptations, and he slept with me and Sophie all night in my bed. This morning he ate a few more bites of wet food, I fed him cheese and Temptations and gave him his pneumonia meds, and now he's back at the vet for the day (mostly for my own peace of mind - if he was at home, I would be panicking every five seconds that he's crashing again). I'll pick him up and take him home again tonight.

We're not out of the woods yet, but my vet said his breathing is MUCH better and that he's eating at all is a positive sign. He doesn't seem 100 percent himself - he's a little wary, and obviously normal-Kismet would be eating all the food in sight - but he's getting there. I hope.

We're not sure why he crashed so badly on Monday night. Kismet hates the vet, so whenever we go there and he needs an exam, they usually sedate him. Normally he's okay with it (well, minus the rage, you know), but my sense is that the fluid in his lungs plus the antibiotics plus the sedation was too much for him to handle. My vet, for the record, feels terrible about this; mostly that I had to go to the ER vet and spend so much money there and go through all the stress. I don't blame them, really - I've learned a lot over the past few days, namely that pneumonia/asthma/heart conditions bleed together and are very difficult to diagnose - and I know that cats presenting symptoms can sometimes tank quickly. They feel badly, and he seems to be doing better, and they're not sedating him for anything anymore. They've been pretty great, actually.

I'm still going to get him the heart ultrasound to determine if he has a heart condition or if this really was just pneumonia that knocked him on his butt. But I'm hopeful, and that's a lot better than where we were at the beginning of the week.

I want you all to know how very much your purrs and prayers mean to me. I live in a small town and I have felt pretty alone going through all of this, but receiving your comments and encouragements has helped immeasurably. Skeezix's Food Lady told me that some of you were interested in donating to help pay for Kismet's bills. If this is something you are in a position to do and would like to, I've installed a paypal button on the side of the blog. Please know that I don't expect this at all, and that you've even offered touches me more than I can say. My man cat is so special to me and I love knowing that his silly and ridiculous and wonderful man cat life has touched so many people. If you are interested in donating and have questions or would like to see documentation of the vet bills, please let me know. And if you do donate, please leave a comment or email us your information so I can send you a thank-you note from the man cat.

Thank you all so, so much for your support and concern. If Kismet pulls through this, I think it might be enough to get him out of internet retirement for good!

xo,
Kismet's Person