My beloved cat Hamlet passed away November 18, 2015, exactly one year ago today. He was almost 16 years old. He fought a valiant battle and was in remission from small cell lymphoma when his kidneys failed.
I loved him so much. My other cat Lucy R.I.P. (2000-2015) passed away last year in February, and I miss them both so much.
Despite Hamlet’s diagnosis of Chronic Kidney Failure, it is treatable! He’s responding well to the subcutaneous fluids I began to give him yesterday. This past Friday morning Hamlet was dehydrated and not eating and I saw my vet and he taught me how to give the fluids. Hamlet’s eating again and was amazingly cool about letting me stick him with a needle. I was a bit scared to do it.
In other good news, the ER doctors were incorrect that Hamlet’s carcinoma had returned. We saw his oncologist on Tuesday and he confirmed this. I had a birthday this week and it was the worst week ever really. I am feeling better though as I can celebrate what a fighter my Hamlet is.
Hello dear followers of Jillypopmusic! I have dearly missed posting regularly and missed reading my favorite blogs and all the commenting and lovely encounters in the bloggosphere with you.
As you know Lucy passed on 2/28 and well it’s a funny thing. I begin writing this post, walk away from the laptop for just a moment. Suddenly the soundtrack to “Chicago: The Musical” begins playing on the laptop media player. I have no explanation for this. Except that I believe that when loved ones depart, they hang around and are able to do friendly things like start an album you like. I’m not going to go too much into it, but it actually makes me feel like Lucy is still here and walked across the keyboard of my laptop and started the music.
Hamlet is doing well. Four days ago he started chemo meds (Chlorambucil) in addition to his regime of prednisolone and B12 begun recently. I found a private small yahoo group for owners of cats with small cell lymphoma, and it’s nice to have some support and additional sources of information.
The last I posted was a picture of Paul and me and really ever since then the relationship has deteriorated and seems to get worse daily. Paul is jealous of everything I do and anyone I spend time with. He has expectations that I can’t meet romantically. He picked a fight as I wrote my Wall challenge post. To complicate matters, Paul helps me give Hamlet his meds. I repeatedly tell him I’m not in the proper frame of mind for a romance and can we be friends. Well he’s one of these guys that doesn’t want a platonic relationship. He wants everything that he needs in one person. I don’t think that’s fair to me. The fact is I have a life, friends, meetups, classes, and I can’t just be his full-time attentive girlfriend. There is a reason I have been single for years. I feel like it’s not going to work out at all, which is sad for us.
I began a computer Front End Web Development class the day Lucy passed. It is so hard and a real challenge. It moves very fast and I need to devote a lot of outside class time to review what we’ve learned.
What’s truly been the most therapeutic during this difficult time has been my Fitbit. It tracks my daily steps and you join challenges where you compete against up to ten others. As a competitive person, it’s very motivating and also makes walking fun. You get trophies, badges, and lots of encouragement during the challenges. I came in 3rd place in my first workweek challenge during which I walked over 62K steps from Monday to Friday last week. Not bad for a person who prefers watching Downton Abbey on the couch. Luckily my friend Connie forced me to go out several times instead of bingeing on ice cream and my 95% full DVR.
Thank you for reading my blog. Now I need to catch up on my favorite blogs and bloggers!
There are thousands of cute cat videos online. Today’s motivational post and video are dedicated to my beloved cat Lucy, who passed February 28, 2015. I took this video of Hamlet, Lucy’s best friend, grooming her quite recently. Lucy had pancreatic cancer and I was given just moments to make a decision to put her to sleep. I didn’t know she was sick and she and I hugged goodbye. I kissed her sweet head and it was over quickly. I cry every day I miss her so much.
Within the same week, Hamlet, my feisty and sweet 15 year old, was diagnosed with small cell gastrointenstinal lymphoma. Hamlet began to get sick on Christmas Eve 2014. He saw 2 vets and is under the care of an oncologist. He has a very good prognosis and began chemotherapy pills last night. In addition, he takes chicken flavored prednisolone. He is a fighter and we’re praying he will enter remission.
jillypopmusic 