Help Murphy Breathe Easy Again

Hi! This is Murphy, our first born, with his little brother Micah. In October, we started to notice Murf was breathing a little weird, and my fur-momma instincts told me something wasn't right. The day before his brother's big first birthday party, I took Murphy to MedVet out of an abundance of caution. To my horror, they asked whether I wanted them to revive Murphy if he stopped breathing... I broken down into tears not knowing how seriously he had been struggling.

That first appointment, they removed 2.95 liters of what we now know was chyle fluid accumulating in his chest. Less than a week later, another 2.45 liters were removed. After weekly appointments over a month and a half, a full blood workup, cytology, an internal medicine workup, ECG, xray, CT, lymphangiogram, and multiple thoracocentesis, we were left with the diagnosis of idiopathic chylothorax (idiopathic meaning "no known cause"). Chyle is a lymphatic fatty fluid which can have serious side effects when it leaks into the chest cavity; it puts pressure on the lungs, preventing them from expanding, and the fluid irritates the chest and causes a buildup of fibrosis. Tests were able to rule out that Murf's diagnosis was due to cancer, heart disease, or any obvious leaky lymphatic ducts. Diagnoses like these can typically only be managed by diet, medication, thoracocentesis (chest "tapping") as-needed for fluid accumulation, and/or surgery.

The surgical option would be a thoracic duct ligation and pericardiectomy, in a combined attempt to stop flow of this chyle through the vessel running through the chest and relieving any potential source of back pressure on the lymphatic system. Because we don't see any obvious leaking from the thoracic duct, I've honestly been skeptical of this surgery. Thankfully, since October Murf has seemed to be responding to his low-fat diet, prednisone and rutin combination, with his body being able to go from 11/5 to now (2/4) with only 3 taps; 11/5, 11/14, and 12/16. However, he's starting to exhibit signs of respiratory distress again, this time in a different way; instead of increased respiratory rate, Murf is now showing breathing retractions, indicating to me he might have more "tightness" in his chest. I'm worried we are starting to experience a fibrotic build up, which is the continued side effect of fluid build up irritating the chest cavity, along with the needles from chest taps disturbing his body. Unfortunately, fibrosis is nearly impossible to get rid of, because it's the body's response to foreign bodies.

Because of the fibrotic build up, surgery is starting to feel more appealing to us. With surgery, the doctors can clear some fibrotic build up while they are operating, and maybe we'll get lucky and the operation will work to prevent future chyle accumulation... which brings us to GoFundMe. I have hesitated to create this until now, because I feel really weird asking for money. But honestly, we have already spent over $7k and there is no end in sight. Murphy's diagnosis means he will need intervention the rest of his life. Murf is only 6.5 years old, and we thought we had so much longer with him. He and Micah are just becoming friends! I know this disease has severely limited the time we have left with Murf, but I hope to provide him with as much relief from pain and suffering as possible while also honoring the life he has left. He is not ready to go yet; he still has so much energy and life!

I know many people are struggling right now financially, so I completely understand if you don't have the means to help us with this. If you do have some extra cash to help with Murf, we would be forever grateful. If you don't we would appreciate if you could share this story with your network in hopes of reaching more people! Please help us provide our first-born baby boy with the healthcare he deserves.

Thank you for reading all of this, we send our love to you and your family. <3

*We are using GoFundMe's "adjusted goal" setting, so if you see the monetary amount increase, it is due to this. Our overall goal is larger than the goal initially shown. I don't want people to think we keep asking for more or something. Also, if you want to avoid fees, you can venmo as well.