Hi friends, Lulu and I need your help. Really.

Lulu has been my soulmate for the past 11 years. We've gone through a breakup, "we" bought an apartment and then "we" moved to California. Lulu has 2 cat brothers but she always was my special baby. I've always felt lucky that she is so healthy but I had health insurance and felt ready for any medical challenges.

We are now faced with a lot of medical bills for diagnostics and a potential surgery at cost of 14K. Something I was never expecting. I am also facing losing her.

This past November I got married, we bought a house that needs renovation and we've started renovating it. On a tight budget. Many of you know our adventures and misadventures.

In March 2023, Lulu started displaying strange behavior, elevated breathing and seemed not herself. After taking her to the vet at Long Beach Animal Hospital, we learned she has a rare condition called chylothorax which affects the lung cavity. Lymphatic fluid chyle is leaking from somewhere in her body, fills the area around lungs and makes it difficult to breathe. Sometimes this is caused by heart disease, cancer or sometimes there is no specific cause. After x ray, pulling fluid out of lungs, and expensive diagnostic tests, it was confirmed she has this condition but it was not specified what might be causing it. We were told to medicate her by taking a supplement called rutin which decreases some proteins and therefore decreasing the fluid and put her on low fat diet, both which have been proved to be successful in treating many cats with this condition. We started the treatment and she started to feel better after few weeks. We did an x ray recheck, had some fluid pulled again, but it looked like things were improving. 2 months went by and I was feeling optimistic that we can get out of this. We have insurance and they were able to cover 70% of the few thousand dollars we had to spend thus far on diagnosis and rechecks.

In May, I noticed that Lulu's abdomen part seems odd, like skin was filled with fluid. We went to the vet and were told she has edema and were prescriped furosemide which treats edema as a diuretic. The vet remarked it was not usual for edema with chylothorax and suggested we might want to do CT scan. I decided to try the meds and see if it helps but after couple weeks it did not, even with increasing dose. We did couple more vet visits. Vet suggested there is still possibility of cancer in chest area and we should consider CT scan at this point. I have made an appt for the scan sometime later next week - I tried to make it sooner but it seemed everywhere it's a process to have it scheduled. However, 2 days ago, Lulu started behaving oddly, not eating and just sort of sitting in a far corner and staring into space which is very very odd for her, she has been playful and hungry all those months. I decided to take her to emergency vet. They did another series of X ray and blood tests and they decided to expedite the CT scan procedure to this Monday. The vet believes she might have lung lobe torsionwhich is related to the chylothorax, either causing it or somehow related. He told us that the cost of CT scan is around 3k + other incidentals, and the cost of surgery is around 14k, if this is what it turns out to be. The scan will give us a lot more info. The surgery is life saving, if needed.

We are now faced with additional diagnostic bills as well as this crazy surgery cost. Even with insurance, we are still looking to spend several thousands of dollars. As I don't know, whether she needs the surgery but decision might need to be made quick, and we already have so many previous costs, and additional costs coming up for diagnostic, I would really appreciate any help from my friends or anyone who is willing to help. I love my Lulu so much, and I can't think of having to put her down because of these mounting costs. I never thought she will need such an expensive surgery to stay alive.

I am starting this fund with a smaller request to help us pay down the debt of what we paid and what's coming up tomorrow, but will update it once we have the CT scan results tomorrow. We have to drop her off tonight to the VCA specialty hospital. I am attaching some of the credit card charges we already spent. Insurance covered 70% of most of the costs but it's still thousands of dollars for us and will be more tomorrow. Thank you so much if you can help us out.