Healing Hazel
PLEASE NOTE: The latest update explains that we had to make the heartbreaking decision to put Hazel to sleep after she started bleeding again, suddenly. I am keeping the page live so that those who donated can read what happened and share their condolences. We still have many bills to pay in the wake of all that has happened so if you donate now, you are solely helping us recover financially from trying to save my sweet little cat, but she is no longer with us. I cannot articulate how devastated we are both emotionally and financially, we did everything we could and your help gave us a bit of extra precious time with her. Thank you from the bottom my heart.
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We adopted Hazel in March 2014, a bright-eyed, bushy-tailed seemingly healthy 3 year old rescue and fell in love with her immediately. We had a few minor health issues to start, but about three weeks ago she became suddenly lethargic and refused food. After numerous blood tests, an x-ray, spending some time in the hospital on IV, a couple ultrasounds with biopsies, we saw a cycle of anemia and rebound, and later discovered masses in her spleen, alongside extremely enlarged lymph nodes.
An internal medicine specialist assessed her and found that she was bleeding internally and he said it was likely one of her lymph nodes burst, causing the bleeding, and since there were no cancerous masses detected, most likely a small cell lymphoma to blame. There are still potentially other underlying digestive issues.
In the past 3 weeks alone, we have spent more than $3,500 dollars on various diagnostics, emergency treatments, medicine and food. The specialist suggests we put her on prednisone and a chemotherapy drug which treats the small cell lymphoma with high success, along with some other supportive meds. The chemo alone is about $10/pill, with numerous courses ahead. While it isn't a super-aggressive or invasive treatment, it is an effective course for a highly treatable cancer. Hopefully we can get her stabilized and into remission soon. Ideally, we would like to follow the specialist's advice and have a surgical procedure to remove her lymph node and stop the bleeding, but the cost of that surgery is prohibitive at this point, given all we have spent already.
Any help you feel comfortable giving is deeply appreciated, even if it is a couple dollars or just sharing the link, I cannot thank you enough. I would like to send a 6x9 print of your choice of any of my photographs as a thank you for chipping in - you can pick something out from flickr.com/kicey - just make sure you send a link to which image you would like printed and a mailing address. Again, thank you for reading, looking, sharing and any support you might be able put towards fixing up my little sickly fluff. I want to give her a chance at living a happy life outside of foster care for more than a few months, I'd like a lifetime to give her all the love I can.
