VeganMom...stumbling through life

All photos are from our family crafting night on Thursday. The first is M relaxing by the fire before everyone arrives. The very sparkly pink tree with purple decorations is Luciana's. So far, I'm shocked to say, the cats have left both trees alone!

I'm so discouraged with life right now. The money situation isn't great already, and true to our pattern, we've followed up our annual December giant auto repair with a major (expensive!) feline health disaster. Chloe seems to be doing better now, but Hallie has taken a huge turn for the worse.

I've noticed her health degrading over the last week. She wasn't eating well and seemed to be dropping weight again. She stopped eating yesterday, and I have not been able to coax any food or water into her. I took her to our vet this morning. Now they think she may not have diabetes, or she may have diabetes and something else. Her liver enzymes are critically elevated. They have no idea why or what's going on with her now. They speculated that the liver's proximity to her pancreas caused the pancreas to malfunction slightly and skew her glucose.

So I now have an extremely lethargic little girl who is down to 4.8 pounds (down from her peak healthy weight of 8 pounds. We are going back tomorrow (yes, on Sunday--my vet made special arrangements with a vet friend of hers) and they will give Hallie and ultrasound. We are all hoping that will shed a little light on the situation, because right now, even the vets are completely stumped. All I know for sure is that today's visit and lab work were very expensive. Tomorrow's ultrasound will be a minimum of $300 on top of that, and I am not sure how we're going to swing it. I will find a way though.

In the meantime, I have to watch my sweet girl who is basically a tiny, little bag of bones, and I feel helpless. I have a ringer's bag, so I can give her sub-cu fluids. I've also been heating up some extremely disgusting prescription high-calorie canned flesh of some poor other animal, and trying to coax Hallie into taking a lick or two. I'm trying every hour to get her to eat something, but haven't had much luck. I mostly just gag and wretch, from the smell and looks of the ick-nast food. Another rockin Saturday night for me!

The kids have their cat village spread across the entire living room again. They are having tons of fun. Their happy little giggles and laughs help cheer me up a bit.

We've had a very busy week, and it looks like it will continue at that pace until after xmas at least. We took some time out Thursday evening for some fun. We had our B-D family crafting night. This year, we made snowpeople and xmas trees. My parents and Dej & Luke came. Hunter couldn't make it this year (we'll do our craft with him later), because the only free time the rest of us had in common, H wasn't able to make it.

On the extremely plus side, I do not have to go to work (either job) until Jan. 4! Other than grading and housework, I will be a woman of leisure for the next couple of weeks. I've already planned four weeks worth of projects that I am hoping to knock out over my break. Why bother with realistic goals when I can set ridiculous goals that I have no hope of actually achieving? ;-)

I just now returned from feeding Hallie, and she ate a spoonful. It wasn't even a teaspoon, just a baby spoon, but I was so happy I cried!


back row (L->R) Mark's, Dej's, Luke's

front row (L->R) Amy's, Grandpa's, Grandma's, Luciana's






back row (L->R) Mark's, Dej's, Luke's

front row (L->R) Amy's, Grandpa's, Grandma's, Luciana's