Sara and her Kitty

Sara continues to do well. She is stable on the ventilator. No infections, fevers or anything else concerning. She just continues to cough junk out of her lungs and get stronger breathing. Her tidal volumes are now up in the mid 600s even when lying down.

When I came in her room tonight I had one of my serious, but not trying to scare the girl faces on. Her beloved cat, Dusty, is having some pretty serious issues. He stopped eating two days ago, and has been drinking little. He seemed ok yesterday morning, but by the time I got home last night it was clear that that cat was ill. One of his eyes was swolen and bulging, not reacting to light and it was obvious the cat was not well. I fretted on whether to take him to the animal emergency hospital, or wait to have him seen at his regular vet. I opted for the latter, as he is also a dear family friend.

When I spoke with Dr. Veterinarian early this afternoon he had said that the cat was in very bad shape. Would certianly lose the eye, if not die altogether if he did not eat and drink. We briefly discussed options. I left work sure I was going to have to tell my daughter we were going to have to put Dusty to sleep. She loves that cat more than anyone or anything in this world.

By the time I got to the vet office a few hours later, the cat was doing better. Not great, but better. Dr. Vet had given him fluids, shots,done tests, and the cat ate for him. His eye even looked better. He said that maybe it wasn't as bad as earlier thought, but the cat would almost certainly lose the eye. He sent us home with a handful of oral syringes to administer to Dusty throughout the night and we'll decide tomorrow morning what the plan is.

So, after getting to the hospital, I had to talk to Sara about it. I promised her I wouldn't keep anything from her, and this certainly is something she'd want to know. I explained everything, talked about the cat, and we discussed the options for Dusty. We're going to let Dr. Vet tell us when it is time, and then she just wants to say goodbye beforehand. I think Sara took all of this much better than I have. But, she and I are both hopeful that the cat has at least another life in him...

I talked to Sara about her Father visiting and her step-mother issues on his behalf. I told her that although I felt that her reasons were between her and Tracy, that I was going to ask because feelings had been hurt and stuff had blown way out over it. Basically, Sara is ready to seeing her father about as often as she did before her accident. She does enjoy seeing him, and she's not upset about anything. She's just ready to get back to normal with him. I did ask her if he could come up and ask him about this himself and visit with her on Saturday, as her father and step-mother now question my honesty or accounting of communications with her. She agreed. So I called her father after leaving and let him know. There was quite a bit more to the conversation than that, including an earful from Denise on everything i've ever done wrong in her eyes. I'm not even angry with her for it. Just sad.

I will say, to everyone who follows this blog, my intention was never for this to become a discussion forum between the people most important to her. I am sorry that either postings or comments here have tangented away from the real reason I started this - as a means to communicate Sara's status and as primarily my outlet and record of this journey. I opened it up to other family members to post, so we could each share our portions of the journey with her, if so inclined, with the many, many people who care about her. This is about Sara.

That being said - I am keeping the unfortunate entries up. But, I will ask that people not call Denise and give her any shit about her posts, or comment unkindly to her either in person or on my blog. She's entitled to her opinion, although it would be more helpful and appropriate if she picked up the phone to share it.

The A Number One rule of THIS family (myself, Sara and Michael) is "Kindness Always". Let's please keep only that tone in our posts and comments going forward.

Anybody take exception to any of my posts or comments, please email me directly at NetzillaKB@gmail.com.

I'm going to call the ICU now and check to see if she is sleeping ok, then I am off to bed. I have a lot of work this weekend, and she has lots of visits...