Jill's Journey

We have a little over three months to go to Jill’s ONE YEAR AMPUVERSARY!  We still need 19 states!  PLEASE HELP US REACH OUR GOAL so we can make a great donation to tripawds!  To see details about our postcard project and where to send, please go to:

http://jillsjourney.tripawds.com/2013/02/05/a-get-well-project-for-jill-help-us-reach-our-goal/

We still need the following states:

Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, New Jersey, North Carolina, New York, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Vermont & West Virginia

Nine years ago today my Jilly was born.  Two days later she was found all alone in a driveway and nursed back to health by a foster mom.  8 weeks later she came into my life.  I can truly say she has enriched my life in ways I would never have imagined a little kitty could.  She has taught me strength, showed me the true meaning of unconditional love and given me endless snuggles.

This year has been tough.  We celebrated her eighth birthday thinking she had beat cancer, but that was not to be YET.  So we will celebrate her ninth BIG.  I truly believe we will beat this thing.  She is doing so great now.  She has endless amounts of energy and her appetite is back.  She is really a fighter and has shown me the true meaning of strength and not giving up.

I love you baby girl.  I will never give up on you.  Happy Birthday!!!  Here is your celebratory belly rub:

When I look at this pic, I just hear that song playing in my head.  I took this picture a few hours after getting home from the vet on Sunday.  Jill had her weigh in after being off a metronomic dose of Leukeran for two weeks to see if she would gain weight before we started to panic.  She had previously lost 15% of her body weight in 6 weeks.  I was panicking.  It did not appear to me that she was eating any less and she was having very mild GI issues, but nothing that should cause her to lose such a significant amount of weight.

So Sunday would be very telling.  If she had lost more weight, we would have had to proceed with an abdominal ultrasound because something wasn’t right.  Her bloodwork was perfect, so it had to be something internal.  I can say with all honesty, I was just as nervous for this weigh in as I’ve been for any chest x-ray.  The nice vet tech brought her to “the back”  and I sat there (they were also doing another urine test on her, nothing much to worry about they just wanted to check something, it all came back normal) waiting and waiting.  The receptionist who just adores Jill went back at one point and came out and yelled “9 POUNDS 8 OUNCES!”  Well.  I thought I heard wrong.  That’s 11 ounces she gained in 2 weeks.  And now I can breathe again.

So it seems the Leukeran was making her feel yuck and she just wasn’t eating as much as she usually does.  So now who feels horribly guilty?  Well yeah, me.  It’s ok though, we figured it out!

So where do we go from here?

I originally brought up doing metronomics with Jill’s oncologist because I honestly hated the thought of not having a plan after finishing IV chemo.  After Jill had her toe amputated in June 2012, the plan was to do nothing because the margins were clean and look where that got us.  I think there’s always a fear in me that the “do nothing” approach just isn’t good enough because it bit me the first time.  But I need to learn to accept the fact that this time isn’t like last time.  This is an unpredictable disease, especially in Jill for so many different reasons.  We really didn’t know what we were dealing with the first time and when it metastasized in her leg, we really fought it head on.

But I swear, when I took this picture on Sunday something clicked inside me.  Everything is going to be fine.  Look at how happy she is.  Look at how healthy she looks.  Maybe “doing nothing” is really doing SOMETHING.  It’s letting her live her life.  She’s been fighting cancer for 14 months now.  Do I need to ask more of her?  There needs to be something said for the power of just living a happy life.  She deserves that.  She’s been such a tough little fighter throughout this whole thing.  We can try to give her a lower dose of Leukeran and see if she does OK on that, but honestly, I think it’s time for “Jill’s Journey Part 4 – Relaxation” to begin 🙂 and for the first time in a long time, I am happy and feeling like everything is going to be all right.

This post is a little bit late.  I am currently in my “busy season” at work, so I just haven’t had the time to update.  Which also means, Jill has me freaked out at the worst possible time of year for me.

A week ago I brought Jill to her vet because she had peed outside the litter box again.  This has been happening on and off since she peed all over herself a few months ago, when we had ruled out a UTI.  I would say it would happen about once a week, maybe once every other week.  Now, I DO have another cat as we all know, so is it possible it’s Jack?  I suppose so…but since she did pee all over herself that one time, I’d say unlikely.  So I took her in last Saturday, because I was about to go on the road for work and wanted her looked at before I left.

The urinalysis came back clean for bacteria, but had some red blood cells in it, so it was sent off for a culture.  But during her physical exam, a new problem arose.  She was down to 8 pounds, 13 ounces.  She weighed in at 9 pounds 5 ounces 2 weeks earlier and 10 pounds 2 ounces 6 weeks earlier, so that’s 15% of her body weight shes lost in 6 weeks.  Not so good.

Now the vet asks me, “is she eating?”  Well…I think so?  Jack and Jill are grazers, so I fill their food bowl once a week and they eat from it throughout the week.  I see her go into the kitchen now and again, but do I know if she’s eating like usual?  Well, no….I work a lot, so I’m not home all day to watch her like a hawk.  So is the weight loss due to the fact that shes not eating or something else?  Dont know.

We decide between her regular vet and the oncologist that we’re going to first try to take her off Leukeran (which she has now been taking metronomically for 8 weeks) and see if that changes anything.  It does seem like it would be a big coincidence that the weight loss all started when she began metronomics.  She has had on and off vomiting and diarrhea since being on it, but I started giving her a pepcid with the Leukeran and that had helped.

Now I am watching her eat like a hawk when I am home and I am noticing that she isn’t really eating all that much, but again, I don’t really have anything to compare it to.  Her vet suggested I give her some fancy feast with the gravy in it.  So I got her a can of that tonight and the second I popped the can open her nose was going a mile a minute!  She ran over to it and slurped up every morsel of gravy in there – but didnt eat the meat.  Not so unusual for her, she has never liked soft food.

So, she gets weighed in one week from today.  I’m pretty much terrified.  If her weights gone down, she’ll have to go for an abdominal ultrasound and what that could mean, frightens the heck out of me.  I should also mention, they tested her blood right away and all looked perfect.  Liver function, thyroid, sugar level….like the healthiest cat in the world.

Besides the weight loss, she’s doing marvelously.  Playing, alert, happy…and no peeing accidents in over a week.  So we’ll see…here’s hoping…

Here is Jill slurping up her gravy:

and a pic of her hangin out with her brudda:

This is Jill. I hacked moms puter because she is away on bidness and forgot my 8 month ampuversary is today. Hoppy ampuversary to me.  Mom says when she gets home we need to fatten me up because I losted some weight.  She says when her bidness trips is over she will write a big post bout it but right now she needs to wake up to catch a plane ride home to do more work tomorrow.  I miss mom.  But brudda Jack is watching over me good.  No worries.

Well, it only took 7.5 months….

Tonight, I was filming Jill (naturally) and she must have known the camera was on, because she decided to PERFORM.  Since her amputation, Jill has not been able to jump on the bed without the help of a large pillow step.   Tonight, for the first time since surgery, I present:

I was so happy, so full of pride, I could burst.  I honestly stopped noticing the pillows a while ago and just accepted them as our new way of life.  It didn’t even bother me, she’s a little thing, she’s got a tiny back leg, of course she needs help getting up on my bed.  And really? this long after surgery she would magically jump on the bed with no help?  YES!

Let’s go to the video replay:

Four days post amputation:

One month ago:

So, this may not seem like a HUGE milestone, but to me, this is big.  To me, it just means shes still getting stronger, all these months later.  I’m so proud of my baby.

Jill Here.  Mommy says I’m being such a good girl lately and doing very well  so she let me get on this ‘puter and write my own bloggy post tonight.  I just wanted to write a quick post to let everyone know that I LOVE CATURDAYS!  EVERYDAY SHOULD BE CATURDAY!  MOMMY doesnt have to work on Caturdays she says it is the “weekend” so we get to do THIS all MORNING!

A few months ago, someone on here (I cannot for the life of me remember who!) told me about the book A Letter to my Dog.  They had seen it on TV and were preparing to write a sequel entitled A Letter to my Cat.  They were asking for submissions online, so I went to the website, wrote a letter and submitted a picture of my Jill and never gave it a second thought.

On Monday night, I got a call from the people who are putting the book together!  Honestly, I thought someone was punking me!  But really, how could they resist little Jill’s face?  She said they loved the letter and absolutely loved Jill’s story.  They were coming to NY this weekend and wanted to see if I would be around for them to come do a photoshoot.  Um YEAH I WOULD BE AROUND!

I always knew this kitty was destined for fame…..

I furiously cleaned my apartment and gave Jill a little pep talk and this morning the photographer and a woman helping out with the book came over to meet my baby girl.

What a doll she was!  She was a little skittish at first, wondering what was going on….but, she happily accepted some belly rubs.  Jack, on the other hand, came right on out and was rubbing all over everyone, all over the cameras, all over the camera bags….he was putting on quite the show!

Jill was taking beautiful pictures on her blankie like the beautiful princess she is as I told them stories of her life and her courageous battle.  We took a bunch of pictures together as well of her hugging me and snuggling.  They wanted to get a few pictures where you could see her in all her tripawd glory, but it’s a little hard to see she has three legs when shes on her blankie since she blends into it.  So I brought her over to the door and we had her hop back and forth to the couch a bunch of times and I think we got it!

All in all, it was a wonderful day.  The photographer, Susan Weingartner (http://susanweingartner.com/) was AMAZING with her.  I cannot wait to see how everything turns out.  I have no doubt my beautiful girl’s spirit will shine through in these photos…..and I’m so happy I get to share that with the world.

And here are some photos (and a video):

The night before, Jill practicing and telling Jack he better stay out of her shots:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0F9XhkY9qt4&featu
re=c4-overview&list=UU2yqpG2aXyd604jJlH1n5PQ[/youtube] 

Totally Pooped after a hard days work

Happy Ampuversary my little one.  I love you!

HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY EVERYONE!!!!!!  Jill is back in action.  No test now for 4 weeks, so she’s back in business taking a rest from studying for your entertainment pleasure.  Kelly (Angel Wookie’s Mom), Jill’s Fairy VetMother sent Jill this beautiful beautiful outfit and Jill just loves it as you can see.  THANK YOU KELLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So Happy 4th, to you and all your families!!!  Love, The Statue of Jillerty, Belle and Brudda Jack