Hi, my name is Madelyn. I am a 3rd-year medical student in Irvine, California. I have had my emotional support cat Henry for 5 years now and I love him more than anything on this earth. On my day off from my surgery rotation, I noticed he was dribbling pee and brought him to the animal ER. He had to undergo emergency surgery for life-threatening urethral obstruction from bladder stones. The surgeon said this is usually a simple 30-minute procedure but Henry was in the operating room for 4+hours. He had the most stones the surgeon had ever seen and they were embedded in his bladder wall. We brought him home that night and I checked on him every hour. In the morning he was breathing quickly and had blood in his urine. He went back to the hospital and spent nearly a week in inpatient care for septic shock. I answered calls in between OR cases and clinic about Henry developing heart failure, transient diabetes from pancreas failure, malnutrition needing a feeding tube, and more. Each call ended with a bill and the counsel that he is very sick but could pull through with full care. After a week, I was able to bring him home and he has been cleared by the vet with no long-term complications. I’ve never felt such relief. As a student paying for medical school tuition and living expenses in Orange County, this was a significant financial and emotional hurdle for me to deal with. I would greatly appreciate any help you can give and will happily send you all the happy Henry pictures your heart can desire! Thank you!

Here is Henry studying with me.

Here is a happy healthy Henry picture to break up the sad ones :)