11/7 Punkin's non-Caturday Report

I can't seem to manage to post on Saturdays . . . but i stopped by today to check on Roni & Moonie's situation and am so sorry to hear that Mookie and Max have both passed away. :sad: we love our little ones and they never stay long enough.

here's punkin's last condo 9/8/12 i can't believe it's been 2 months!

let's see - punkin is doing pretty well at the moment. clean plate status is achieved every meal. *whew* :lol: of course that's really how we know punkin is doing ok. the pancreatitis is long-gone, he continues to get vit B-12 once a month to finish the treatment related to the pancreatitis. i think he's got one more month or so of that.

he's getting therapeutic laser treatments for his arthritis, which has really helped. i posted about it on the facebook group, but if you aren't on there . . . he stopped wanting to be touched in the past year or so, sometime along the way with the diabetes and acromegaly. we assume he's in pain, because the growth hormone from the acro tumor accelerates arthritis development. we've tried all the options for pain relief (gabapentin, tramadol, acupuncture, hmm, and one other drug that made him hallucinate - the name is escaping me atm) and this seems to be turning out to be a winner. the vet moved his limbs to determine where he hurt or had limited range of motion. front end was fine, back end caused much growling, hissing and ferocious "don't touch there" responses. so he had 4 treatments every other day with the laser on the owie areas - they move a wand (like an ultrasound wand) back and forth across the skin for x seconds for each area. the sensation he gets is just warmth. somehow the magic laser creates changes at the cellular level that heal inflammation and reduce pain.

at his last treatment on Monday the vet re-checked his range of motion. no hissing, no bared teeth (poor fangless boy doesn't look too scary anymore!) and he allowed her to move his hind legs in every which way without really reacting, unlike when we started. so we've declared it "working." His BGs have also dropped and we've reduced his dose from 12.5u to 11.5u - not much, but we're willing to take what we can get! when i posted 2 months ago he was at 8.75u and running high BGs that we couldn't seem to get on top of. we got aggressive with the insulin til we were seeing better numbers, and now perhaps are on the way back down again.

the general process is to spread out the treatments and see if the good response holds. at the moment we're on a 5 day interval and we'll see if that continues to be good.

he's still taking bupe injections (narcotic for pain relief) twice a day, and adequan once a week (also for arthritis). he's seeing a little bit of green here and there, but because i'm not home during the week at nadir we have been conservative on his dosing.

for a gimpy 14yr old boy he seems pretty good. we love the little furball. here's a video of the typical "anya pestering punkin til she gets what she wants, then she doesn't want it" action. it used to be that she always started the kitty wrestling, but he always won it. now he leaves when she starts bugging him.

(sorry about the debate going on in the background!)

Anya Harrassing Punkin

hehehe and i've only bought 1-2 more vintage Singer sewing machines since i last posted. it's not like you can use more than one at a time, but they are so cheap, so high quality and so pretty i can't resist. what people don't realize is those old black singers, now selling for $25-$50, would be $2,000 in today's dollars. there's almost nothing to break on them and they are far better quality than a new $100 machine that's made of plastic. my latest purchase was a Featherweight - to quilters that's the top of the line. a 1950 little thing that celebrated Singer's centennial - don't laugh, but i named her after her previous owner, Gussie. she fits in a little case about 15"x12" like a small suitcase and only weighs 11 lbs. perfect for taking to the beach with my quilting group weekend retreats or to classes and it sews a very nice stitch. i haven't named any of the other machines, but that one called out to me. and NOW i'm done buying sewing machines. i've run out of places to stash them! :lol:

 

Hi,
I'm curious about the laser treatment. It sounds a lot like infra-red , is that what it is?
I'd like to know more since I have a slightly oversensitive to touch ( some of the time) girl who might need something like this soon.
I"ve seen some infra red gadgets for sale and thought about buying one. When I had physical therapy, they would use it on me but said
it cost a fortune for insurance to pay for it so she was sneaking use of it on me.

And listening to you about the older sewing machines has me curious to go look for one now. (like I need any more stuff in my house :lol: )

 

Hey Julie,
Great to hear from you and to hear how well Punkin is doing with the laser treatment.

Love the video!

Too much on the sewing machines! I'm glad at least one of them has a name!! My mother had one of those black, metal, Singer machines (I remember it from the late 1940s and I'm sure it was "old"--at least from a kid's perspective--then). (I also remember having to take sewing at school, hating it, and always taking my sewing "project" home so that my mother would finish it for me on her Singer!)

Lots of hugs to you all from us,

Ella & Rusty

 

Hi Julie, so nice to see your post. Cute video of Anya and Punkin. I guess if your sister is bugging you, a nanner is a nice consolation. CPC is good too, nice to put that pancreatitis behind you. I'm glad to hear the laser treatments are working. Is this something your vet does, or do you have to go to a specialist? Neko seemed a bit owie in the back end before SRT, but seems better now. But it would be good to have something in the back pocket in case we need it. Please give Punkin some extra scritches from me. cat_pet_icon

You bought a Featherweight! I'm jealous. I do see a lot of them at retreats. Is a Featherweight table next?

 

Love Punkin and Anya videos!! I'm so glad to hear the laser treatment is helping, too. How long has Punkin been on Adequan once a week? My Mario has been on it for a year and a half, and at this point we give it to him once a month, but ever since it got colder, I'm thinking he may need it more frequently. I mentioned it to my vet a while ago, and she was a bit iffy about giving it to him more frequently, but now I'm wondering...I've seen others here who use it more frequently than once am month, too.

It's great to see a Punkin condo!!!

 

Good hearing from you Julie.

I think Punkin knew exactly what he was doing. Get in the box. Let Anya think she was teasing him out of there. And then he goes and gets his nanner without Anya being any the wiser.

 

Lovely to know that Punkin is doing well! Glad that the treatment helped with the arthirtis pain!
So you are a collector of vintage sewing machine? We used to see these old machine dumped but not any more, these can easily fetch for over $4k HkD in some antique shops.
Hope to hear from you soon!

 

Just stopped by to say Hi Julie & Punkin, nice to see you here, I don't post much either anymore but I lurk a lot. Great to hear how you are both doing!


Desi, Tinkerbell, Tawny & the Whole Darn Gang