Jingles for Cat Lady - RIP

[shiloh]

Jingling madly for her! The world needs more people like her - and you, too, OP! I hope she gets thru this.

[jetsmom]

Sending jingles, prayers and good wishes for a complete recovery. And bless you OP for caring and helping so much.

[Polydor]

Lots of jingles for CL!

P.

[Garythesquirrel]

Are any of the Cats leash trained? If so, it might be possible to bring a cat in for a visit. I arranged this for my dad when he was in ICU. I spoke with the hospital Chaplin and he spoke with, I think, a patient advocate who spoke with I don't remember, but it was approved.

Also, are there any reputable rescues in your area who could maybe help with placing cats?

Thank you for looking after the Cat Lady and her cats.

[dressagetraks]

I went to see Cat Lady today as I passed through the city on the way back from seeing Mom.

She's doing better. Wednesday night set the bar pretty low, but I was surprised how much she had picked up. She was moved out of the ICU late last night back to a private room. She was still on high oxygen and still didn't seem to be breathing quite as usual to me, and she was coughing on and off. But she was bright eyed and wanted to talk, and she sounded like herself. Said she is feeling MUCH better. She's on three different IV infusions; I was reading the LED stream on the infusion machine. Good. Keep up those IV antibiotics, people; you stopped them too quickly. She's just going to have to go home with IV dosing for a few more weeks, like it or not.

After tales of cats and various other updates, she also said she had seen American Pharoah win on TV last night; she's followed him with interest ever since I went to Hot Springs in April, saw him then, and told her before the Triple Crown that I thought he was the real deal. She asked if I was going back to Hot Springs for their big race next spring (yes, I am, annual trip), and then she said she wanted to go with me.

It's hard to know how to react to things like that sometimes. This poor lady never gets out, never gets to do anything. She was serious. But there's no way I'd take her with me. That day wears me out by the end, extends just under 24 hours with driving, and racks up a few miles just navigating in the facility; for somebody basically chair-bound who is on oxygen 24/7 and doesn't even travel to the other rooms in her own house, not a chance. She would wind up hospitalized in Hot Springs well before the day was over. I pretty firmly vetoed that but reminded her that we do have the Sound of Music next April, a national tour of it coming to about 150 miles away that I have agreed to try to take her to, on the condition that she absolutely must be honest with me how she's feeling as we go through the day. It's her favorite musical. Even that is going to require the logistics of a military campaign, packing extra oxygen, etc., just to sit quietly in a theater for a few hours. No way does she need a day at the races on that track's biggest day of the year.

But I was encouraged that she asked. That little flash of spirit there tells me she is really feeling better (as long as she's on three different IV antibiotics). She's had a setback, but I think she's going to pull out of this, and I wasn't at all sure of that Wednesday night. She was disappointed, because she seriously would have liked to go to the races. As an alternative treat, I told her if she hurried up and got well and was doing great, I might try to take her with me to one of my groups' Christmas concert in December. That concert is conveniently scheduled in the evening, so I could pick her up on the way there. I really would like a shorter "test run" prior to attempting the Sound of Music in April, and I've been looking for something, but it's hard to fit anything into the schedule. She liked the sound of that, though still wished for Hot Springs, too. Ain't gonna happen, sorry.

Anyway, please keep up the prayers and jingles, but things look a lot brighter.

I did get a few cat pictures, Rascal and others, but am too tired to upload them tonight. Mom alone is the most wearing-out part of my week, and Sundays with CL in the hospital have a whole lot left after Mom.

When I was out at CL's, I sat down and stretched out on the couch for 10 minutes. Didn't sit in her chair; somehow, that is so much "her" chair that it seems like an invasion. But I sat down and was still, something odd for me when I'm there. I have often thought her cats must think of me as "vertical person," CL herself being horizontal. But I got on the couch today just to give them the opportunity, and sure enough, within a minute or two, I was a purring carpet of cats. Leading the pack were the most desperate for attention, the kittens.

Then when I got home, Pharaoh was sniffing me all over with interest. She smells her siblings.

By the way, the stuffed cat had made all transfers with CL this week and was looking out her new room's window appropriately.

[Louise]

I'm so glad that she is doing better!

[Zu Zu]

Nice update ~ thank you !


nice update ~ thank you !

please don't forget 'you' in the equation ~ take care of YOU too !

Bless you for caring so much for the people and cats in your life !


* what is your favorite treat ? Starbucks ? Candy ? A favorite restaurant ?

((hugs)) laced with extra strength and patience for you ~

[shea'smom]

Bless your heart for all you are doing for this lady. Jingles for her, you and the kitties.

[RainyDayRide]

What an encouraging update.

May all of us encounter people as kind as you are when we need help...

[dressagetraks]

Here are pictures of some of the cats. I don't see everybody every trip, because they are indoor-outdoor, always back and forth. They might not all encounter my hour of the day, although I do often see cats as my car is on the final approach of the driveway to her place. They pop up out of the grasses and come running. They hear me. Some, however, are more social than others. I always see the kittens (the blacks and the yellows).

Bagheera and Satin

http://i276.photobucket.com/albums/k...psqjschiui.jpg

Lucy (Lucille Ball). She's the biggest talker of the lot. She has conversations with you.

http://i276.photobucket.com/albums/k...pseghnonfo.jpg

Panther.

http://i276.photobucket.com/albums/k...psv3p3nzou.jpg

Tina (the wild child).

http://i276.photobucket.com/albums/k...psgmzz1dwd.jpg

Mini Me

http://i276.photobucket.com/albums/k...pswoheczgs.jpg

Rascal, wanting me to explain this whole situation to her.

http://i276.photobucket.com/albums/k...psrxxvlzdw.jpg

Rascal

http://i276.photobucket.com/albums/k...psbvb00fdl.jpg

Cotton

http://i276.photobucket.com/albums/k...psnzvxp6ow.jpg

Panther, Bagheera, Rascal, and Poly

http://i276.photobucket.com/albums/k...pspt8pdlbj.jpg

Poly (Polyester - to go with Cotton)

http://i276.photobucket.com/albums/k...psks2mq9fj.jpg

I like chocolate.

[Calamber]

Oh, please get some of these kitties placed. It cannot be good for someone with infections and breathing problems and they need more attention. Thank you so much for your love and care. If you need help networking I volunteer!

[dressagetraks]

I saw CL last night. She said they are really trying for discharge by the end of this week.

I cannot place her cats without her permission while she is alive. If she'd died, yes, but I'm not going to take them out from under her. Really, it is not a hoarding situation. All sorts of litter boxes in a large house, and keep in mind that they are indoor/outdoor and are never really all in at once and often use outside instead of the boxes. Their range is far greater than hers; they aren't just 16 cats in her same room constantly. I do think she needs more of a backup system for if things go wrong. We will definitely discuss that when she gets home and is better.

[dressagetraks]

Sigh.

Got a call yesterday morning from CL saying she was being discharged and could I give her a ride home. I thought that was a little quick but knew they were really trying to avoid going over 30 days for insurance purposes. So I said I'd reshuffle day and could be there in about 4 hours. She was disappointed not sooner but accepted.

Did another aide shift, main job pacified for the moment, and off I went to the hospital. She wasn't being discharged. She had simply decided she was going to leave AMA. Too weak to even pull herself up in the bed, but she had HAD IT and was going HOME!!!

Insert a couple of hours I wouldn't like to repeat. I've had more experience than I want with the demented version of this mood with Mom, but CL, while not being realistic, is not demented. Somewhat different maneuvering. Finally wound up in an extended conference with doctor (called down urgently), charge nurse, and me. I think it helped to have me there; I was able to use the cats argument, which they wouldn't have known how to play ("you need to be well when you get home for the cats; if you go home too early and just have to come back, they will be even more traumatized"), and I also was able to identify the straw that had broken the camel's back and which they were going to have to compromise a bit on and tell the doc that on the side when I encountered her at the nurse's station before she entered for the big pow wow.

In the end, CL listened to reason. She has agreed to go to a rehab hospital for a short stay. She is just so deconditioned after 4 weeks in.

The doc really did think she can make a good recovery from all this with a little physical rehab help. Hopefully just a short stay there. Please keep good thoughts coming for her patience. She's about had it.

Cats are all fine though confused beyond measure. I settled in on the couch for a while again this morning and let those who wished nest on top of me. Surround-sound purring.

[wireweiners]

Bless your heart, Dressagetraks, you have gone above and beyond what most caregivers would do. I wish my late father's caregivers had been more like you.

Rehab hospitals are less formal than regular hospitals so maybe you could bring one of the most laid back cats for a visit.

[Zu Zu]

Good news update ~ and so enjoyed the pics of her cats you posted !


Good news update ~

Thanks for sharing the pics of her cats ~ enjoyed putting names with whiskers !

Jingles & AO continue for CL ~

Strength & patience Jingles for you OP ~ you are a true 'caregiver' and friend for CL !

[mvp]

Good thing you were there to apply the Crowbar of the Cats which got CL to relent. And it's a good thing that Crazy Cat Ladies (in general) can be reasoned with... if a cat is shown to hang in the balance. And remember the guy in the stand-off with the cops in San Francisco? What got him to give up? That's right: The negotiators had to bring in his cat.

[dressagetraks]

Bad news. CL has been moved back to the ICU, her third stay there during this admission. She is now over 30 days in the hospital. I couldn't visit because I missed by 10 minutes the ICU visiting hours and would have had to wait two hours for the next ICU visiting window. I'm assuming it's pneumonia again, though. That's been the up-down struggle throughout once they dealt with the ruptured appendix.

At the nursing home before I tried the hospital, Mom was in bed and 90% asleep and could only manage a few responses today, so her visit was quite abbreviated, too. The staff said she had been very tired and fazing in and out today.

On to CL's place, where her cats were wide awake and glad to see me. Everybody available petted, and I had a nice conversation with Rascal.

Tina, the freaked-out brain-damaged wild thing, was hanging around about 3 feet away half agitated as usual. CL says she never settles, even with CL herself, not in all of her life. But today, when Tina was not-quite-orbiting me but acknowledging me, I bent over and wiggled my fingers at her. While I can pet her now, I always have to make the approach and do it while she's eating. This time, she wasn't eating, and I didn't move an inch. Just waited. She knew what I wanted. She will come to CL, just won't settle down to affection. She paced around meowing a few times, but I held steady, not approaching, and after about a minute, she closed about half the distance toward me. She then slammed to a stop like "what am I doing!?!?" and turned back away, and I reached out (slowly) then and petted her a few strokes. But I was determined that she was going to make the first move that time, and she did. Per CL, nobody else (except the vet while she was sedated) has ever gotten a hand on her. I'm glad, but I'm under no illusions that any breakthroughs with Tina are due to anything except desperation and lack of anybody else right now.

Rascal, now, accepted me before this whole mess but only after holding out for months, and Rascal has all marbles and is a wary and thorough judge of character. CL says she's never liked the aides. Now THAT feline warming up, I'm proud of.

So I batted around .333 on Sunday visits. Please keep up the prayers for CL. I'm also praying, though the other way, for Mom, but she's a chronic case. CL, in spite of COPD, had not had pneumonia once in all the months I've seen her. I'm sure she got into this cycle as a low-point reaction after the surgery, and she's having trouble keeping herself snapped out of it. I'm afraid she'll start to lose spirit at this latest setback preventing her from going on to rehab yet.

[cowboymom]

Haven't posted before but I think of CL often, and her kitties. I'll keep hoping for the best for them all. You're good peeps, OP.

[My Two Cents]

Hugs for you, your Mom, and CL. Jingles!!!

[Polydor]

Lots of jingles for CL . And nice break throughs with the kitties.

P.

PS. I love that my spell check now recognizes that jingles is a word and will auto correct my spelling mistakes to it.