She ate! I only gave her a tiny breakfast and some pills, but she ate them all!!

12:10pm update

Back from the vet.  Where Macie proved me a liar from when I made the appointment yesterday (I thought it would be to put her out of her misery, but today she's refusing to be miserable.)

They took her blood for an early 4-week follow-up – most of the results won't be in until Monday.  But her red blood cell count is up a touch (only a touch, nothing to get excited about), so at least it hasn't gotten worse...  No heart murmur (when I was anaemic, I had a heart murmur, it's quite common because the heart doesn't have the proper thickness of blood to pump – so the fact that she isn't as anaemic as I was makes me happy!).  Her bloating is better today than yesterday, but they measured her at 82cm, so we have something to compare (haven't used my dressmakers' measuring tape in a long time, so it now gets taken out of the closet).

The vet is going to talk to the specialist about putting her on a chelating drug to take the copper out of her liver – but cautioned that it may be too late, at this point, since the ascites (bloating due to liver not producing albumin) is so advanced already.

She believes we're at the palliative stage too.  She asked if I was the type of person who didn't want to know or did want to know – I, of course, am the tell me everything and don't sugar-coat it kind of gal.  So yeah, we may be past the point of no return with her liver, but we'll know more after she talks with the internal specialist.
In the meantime, Macie is having a good day, so we're going to enjoy it.  And try to get more food into her (which she seems happy about).  It's a roller-coaster, but she's worth it.  ❤

1pm edit

Saucy girl thinks she's a Hobbit, she got Second Breakfast (another 1/3 of her usual breakfast) and ate the whole thing!  Has also been drinking a bunch of water again.

2:30pm edit

Specialist is hesitant to add the chelation medicine, because it can make her throw up, and if she's having trouble with appetite, don't want to make things worse.  Also no guarantee it will do any good at this point.  So if we do try, best to wait until Monday, so the vet is open and can help through any issues.  (We'll also have her blood tests back Monday to see how things are going.)  So no new meds for now.

8:30pm edit

She was sleeping upside-down on the couch again, so obviously not feeling so much discomfort today.  And we had a surprise visit from Ali, which made her happy (even if it made me cry).  Oh yeah, and then I actually had to yell at her, because she was being bad and licking the medicine out of Jasper’s ear – so she’s obviously not too sick to get in trouble.

11:20pm edit

In between crying and grief, don’t forget to notice life’s miracles.

Montdogues and Catpulets in fair Verona (or, the kitchen)

https://youtube.com/shorts/YaJmc2eAZp4

(Apparently, YouTube shorts are no longer embeddable in the blog – trust me, it's worth the extra click!)

1:30am edit

More miracles.  So happy that she's happy.  ❤️

https://youtube.com/shorts/EBXhGnbLZA8