Crying at the emergency vet at the asscrack of the morning after waking up to the sound of my baby boy choking down a long mesh-like ribbon that then broke off in his mouth when i tried to remove it
ummm so im gonna make a donation post later and maybe offer some sketch comms or something because my bozo of a cat now needs abdominal surgery to extract the rest of the ribbon lest it get anchored and cinch his intestines and cause a much more emergency sort of situation. The estimate they handed me was almost $8000 and thats only for 1 day of hospitalization; each additional day, which the doctor said could be around 5 depending on how fast he recovers/nothing goes awry healing, is like $950 on top of it.
I literally cannot afford this. i live paycheck to paycheck with only anywhere from $30-$350 left in the bank between paychecks with maximum scrimping and saving and eating very little. I don't know how im gonna make the monthly payments for the care credit i had to hurriedly sign up for.
why, bojji cat. why. for fucks sake
if ur reading this and wanna help a little before i get that post up (prob after the half day of work) my ko-fi is here
The surgeon called. He's going under now. There was already noticeable bunching of his intestines in the scans they did. Pray for my baby
UPDATE: Bojji is doing good! They extracted the ribbon through only a small cut in his intesties and things are back to normal down there, she said after they fixed the bunching and accordion-ing of them it looked healthy and fine. He woke up from the anesthesia and is being very sweet to the doctors in his doped up state, which heartens me bc that sounds like him, so he's already bouncing back pretty well
They said to let him have a while longer to rest and perk back up but then i can go visit him which i may take them up on bc i miss my baby boye so muchhhhh ;_; GOD I WAS SO WORRIED
i mean i still am, he needs to now heal properly and ofc theres the bill
THANK YOU SO MUCH to those who already donated, seriously bless you. first thing i do after receiving the adjusted total will be putting everything I've received so far right on to it; i THINK im on a plan where i shouldnt get interest for x months (this morning is a blur i'll have to log in to the site and poke around to find the exact details oop), so the lower I can get the principal before interest starts hitting the better
and of course no less thanks to those who have shown their support by sharing: your help has gotten my plight in front of more eyeballs that might have some money to spare so definitely dont feel bad if that's all you can do for me and bobo. we appreciate it all so much.
i'll be setting up a more official call for help post later when i have the final invoice. im also gonna try to figure out if theres something i could offer in exchange for a certain donation amount; my ability to draw has been too fickle to rely on being able to output commissions but im entertaining the idea of maybe something i can have made at work for cheaper on my employee discount (white vinyl die-cut stickers? of what im not sure but i was thinkin abt it at work as i worked on applying those to smth)
UPDATE 2:
Bojji is... not doing perfectly. He won't be coming home today. This sucks both because I'm worried about what the doctor said AND because every fucking day he stays there is almost $1k more on my final bill. im also now going to be paying for some extra testing and, god forbid the results are dire
ON THE BRIGHT SIDE. the doctor said she highly suspects the results will be fine and is only doing this as a precaution due to the nature of his predicament
to try to sum up what she told me, bojji's bloodwork and heartrate and breathing etc are all great. however, he's quiet and not eating, she suspects bc his intestines arent quite moving at the right pace yet after the trauma and surgery so she suspects he feels nauseous, and they can go in and relieve that for him and give him a feeding tube as they wait for things to start moving smoothly again. that's not the big problem. the big problem--potentially--is that theres (a little bit of) fluid around his lungs and heart. not enough to affect their functioning yet, since his rates and stuff look perfect. she said this could be a simple situation of him not handling the IV fluids well that will resolve itself after he's off them and his body sorts it out naturally. she suspects this is more likely the case given that some of the fluid is around the heart as well and not just the lungs. however since there was potential for esophageal damage she wants to take a sample of the lung fluid and test it for any signs of bacteria/food materials to make sure its not a worse sign that there's a tear in his throat causing that fluid around his organs, bc if thats the case and they dont do anything about it, it would...become a very much more urgent kind of emergency.
my fear is that he will indeed have that tear and need an additional surgery to fix that and the days needed to make sure he didnt get an infection and that all will be what Breaks It. I can only pay up to $9200 with the care credit i got. if things are going to go above that the decisions i dont want to have to make will happen and im so afraid of that. i couldnt stand to lose my bobo boy, especially by my own choice. he's only 2. for fucks sake. please be okay, bojji
UPDATE 3:
so i have vaguely good news! just got my morning update and bojji seems to be recovering by medical intervention alone. hes more responsive today and they even got him sitting up and holding his head up and everything ;v; this gives his surgeon hope that surgery will not be necessary so theyre holding off on the endoscopy to watch his progress a little longer to see if that additional cost will actually be needed. theyve been working with me to keep the cost down as low as possible while still getting him the care he needs and as of today, we're still within the range of my care credit's limit. basically their plan at this point is keep the gunk washed out of his chest cavities and continue to feed him through tube so that no additional bacteria are introduced to his stomach or throat until the hole--hopefully--heals up on its own (which ofc can lead to other problems if it scars stupidly so hhhhh but thats bodies for ya.) The only bad thing is his blood pressure has been wobbly, lowering significantly when he's given pain meds, which worries the doc so she's been trying to manage his pain as well as possible without overdoing it... so my poor boy is probably not flying numb in opioid bliss rn but theyre doing their best to keep him as comfortable as they can. :(
i will be visiting him later today along with his best friend mr wormy who i brought into bed with me last night like bojji would have done....so he smells just how bojji remembers, and reminds him theres a loving home and mommy to come back to, so he can stay strong and beat this thing
UPDATE 4:
bojji continues to improve at a shocking rate. he's very "bright" today and has been able to sustain his blood pressure without medical assistance again. the only thing is that his breathing is kind of rapid (though hes not having any trouble oxygenating) but the surgeon is guessing this is his compensating to breathe shallowly rather than move his ribcage more, where there IS tubes sticking in between a couple ribs on both sides into the space surrounding his lungs, which according to human patients with similar setups is not SUPER comfy even if their pain medications are effective, and since food regurgitating into that cavity was a (valid and in the end justified) concern they used a lil thicker tube than they would usually for Chunk Purposes so probably even more so. so she is gonna give him some local anesthetics and see if that solves his breathing, because if it does it will get us closer to concluding safely he no longer needs oxygen supplementation either. which gets him closer to not needing to be in the hospital anymore.
the only bad thing is she has informed me we appear to be hitting the end of my care credit's limit now. his astounding healing rate may be saving me several day's worth of stay, but not enough... I am looking at the secondary payment method they had recommended at first (something called scratch pay) but it appears to be income based which doesnt seem uhhhh promising for me. not that it doesnt make sense--obviously nobody wants me to borrow outside of my means or whatever. But if I stop now everything up until now has been for nothing. He is getting better and can recover if just given more time. if i have to end his stay, that sepsis is only going to come back with a vengeance growing off of what much-less bacteria remains to be removed, and he will die, painfully--or i'll be spending my new loan on putting him down while he's starting to feel better. i just....cant do that.
its fair to say my care credit limit ($9200) has now made itself a Stage One Goal Amount
so i'm finally gonna make an official donation post after I visit him today, as well as work on some potential gifts as incentive for donating (no promises there. but if i DO set smth up all previous donators who had donated $X+ will be messaged to offer it to them as well, so pls dont hesitate to donate ASAP.) Obviously theres no way in hell I'm managing to get almost $10k in ko-fi donations from tumblrites (and certainly do not expect it! im loathe to rely on others' generosity to begin with and the amount thats already come in is already well beyond the help i ever dreamed I'd scrap up) and I will be putting every cent i can spare of my own money into it as well, but literally any and all help is hella appreciated
UPDATE 5:
Bojji is very bright today. he was zoinked on pain meds spacing out when i got there but after a few pets he smelled who i was and suddenly sat up (and even stood still for a pic for a sec hehe) and then moved closer so he could headbutt my face for kisses like he was just at home on a normal day… i smooched and scritched him till he laid down, then as i pet him he started flexing his lil paws as though he were kneading on nothing ;v; even going through all this he's still the sweet, lovey bobo i know. this lil mans deserves to live.
thank you SO MUCH to all the donors, im actually speechless that we've already hit 11% of our goal--because its a BIG goal! i dont imagine it'll keep up at this rate but its already given me such a good starting place for starting payments on the bill where i had Literally Nothing For It before, i feel like my heart is gonna explode from how bipolar its been between filled with joyous gratitude and guilty despair about my boy
to all my fellow cat owners out there, take my misfortune as a reminder: don't get lazy. the one time you dont put that ribbon somewhere they can't get it....they will. protect your stupid asshole babies from themselves better than I did. please.
Overdue update 6:
Bojji came home feeding and chest tube free and seemed to be doing well for a few days. Then he started regurgitating everything he tried to eat or drink.
The vets are pretty sure he has a stricture--where the esophagus heals wrong and creates a point thats too narrow for passage. Its clear some is getting down, but definitely not all or even most.
The procedure to try and fix this is $5-7k but the director of the animal hospital is stepping in to personally help me pay for it, and the vets are frantically finding suppliers for the equipment the specialist will need to perform it. Today i will be notified of how much of it i need to cover, but needless to say its likely going to be a few thousand. I have a little space on my care credit already thanks to donors, and my older brother offered 2k on his (which id rather not take, but beggars cant be choosers.) The resultant amount will be added to my kofi goal, assuming i can actually afford to go through with this.
If he cant get this procedure, the humane thing to do would be to put him down due to the expensive loss of quality of life he would have with a permanent feeding tube at 2 years old. I REALLY dont want to do that. But Im dangerously close to having to.
So uh. Please donate if you havent already, anything coming in today will be put immediately towards clearing more care credit space. If you cant donate, please, please share my donation post.
It was one thing to consider it during septic shock. Its another thing when hes otherwise 100% healthy. I just cant bear the thought.
Thanks in advance.
Update 7, I already made a post abt it so for the sake of my pinned heres the discharge notes from his endoscopy/ballooning
Update 8
Everyone who follows me already knows but for the sake of keeping this pinned while asking for donations i should mention that Bojji ultimately did not make it. The ribbon won. I'm sorry it's not a happy story despite all the good updates early in. I truly wish it was. If you scrolled here for good news, I have none for you. Please still donate, though if only "for him" in spirit now.