cats
George went 2 days without diarrhea and then tonight its back again. This makes no sense, but we're going to have to take her to the vet to get this resolved.
After a lengthy discussion, there's no good solution to Mona's problems. The reality is that the surgery doesn't guarantee that there won't be a reoccurance (the surgeon claimed a 15% chance of reoccurance, but online sources suggest up to 25%), so even if we went through with it, we could be back in the same place all over again within a few months. Worse, the recovery process from the surgery would take over a month, during which Mona wouldn't have anything to kill the pain. Additionally, the spot where the sequestra is removed would never heal properly, and would instead be replaced with scar tissue, leaving a blind spot in her vision. All of these factors really add up to a miserable existence, which Mona would never understand. At this point, we're hoping that Mona will at least make it through the rest of the year before her eyes degrade to the point where they're too painful and damaged for her to continue. What's a bit odd is that for the past few days, she's actually been in a relatively good mood. She's been very chatty and active. Its almost like she knows something is coming, and she's trying to prove that she's ok.
Oddly, David actually asked how old Mona was today, and wanted to know if she would die and 'fall apart' soon. Denise tried to address the topic as delicately as possible, but David got a bit upset by the fact that Mona isn't going to be with us much longer. He was afraid that she'd somehow disintegrate on the floor in front of him some day, and Denise had to reassure him that she'd go to the vet before she died. Of course that led to questions about what the vet would do with her and where she'd end up, and Denise danced around that a bit, and David seemed to accept the answer. This definitely is going to require several more chats in the near future.
This all sucks.