First for the important news: Ghost made it through the night!  I went to
visit him this morning and he is bright eyed and ready to explore, he
crawled into my shirt about 2 seconds after seeing me and broke my heart
with his eyes when I returned him to Dr. Regan for some rest.  Last night he
had a couple episodes of bloody diarrhea, however this morning he is back
to his "normal diarrhea".  The immediate concern right now is an abnormal
heart beat (fast than slow), however its suspected that this is the result
of the lymph node biopsy and the body attempting to readjust to a new
chemical balance.  The Ghost will probably be staying in the hospital one
more night, then he will be coming home.  And I mean "home" in a permanent
way as I have asked Randy to but together his adoption papers for me.
 
For those who are not familiar with Ghost's story here is a bit of history
on the boy.  3 months ago a "bright orange" albino hob was found wandering
the streets, thankfully he was turned over to the Ferret Aid Society of
Toronto by animal control.  Ghost started his days in the shelter with
un-explained runny poops and an attitude towards all other ferrets.
Thankfully his attitude changed quickly and within a matter of days he
could be found chasing a cheweasel with a busyness of ferrets, and his coat
is a full wonder of white (except his shaved belly) unfortunately his
diarrhea did not improve.  Ghost slowly started to deteriorate, however
with Randy's magic touch towards ferrets and her own blend of woozle goo
she was able to stabilize the boy and start him back on the road to weight
gain.  Around the same time we discovered that Ghost had his own preference
for foods....if it were "good" for him (Mazuri, Totally Ferret) he would
want nothing to do with it, however if I was some no name junky cat food he
would gladly chomp away at it.  Needless to say we started to present Ghost
with a buffet of foods and let him eat whatever he would take.  About the
same time my fixation with this little boy grew out of control, I was
thinking about him day and night, and I think Randy was starting to get
frustrated by my phone calls just to ask how Ghost was doing :-).  About a
month ago I appeared at Randy's door step and stole the Ghost!  (alright, I
actually asked first if I could foster him but did not give Randy a chance
to say No as I knew he was going to come home with me).  A month later
Ghost and I have our little game down to a fine art.... He will eat food a
bit of food on his own for 2 days if it is a brand that he has never seen
before, than I have to find a new brand of food or he stops eating on his
own completely.  He is also syringe fed at least 4x a day, he is allowed to
start squirming away only when we are down to the last 5cc of goo in the
syringe, and he even has his act of choking (as he thinks I'm killing him
with his meds) down to such a fine art he starts BEFORE I give him the
meds.  However, no matter how much we fight over the amount of food I think
he should be eating, this boy is a true gentleman.  He has never thought of
biting (even during his worst nights) and he has never stopped sneaking
through my house (looking for a new corner to explore).  Twelve days ago it
appeared as if we finally found the right combination of food and meds to
feed this stubborn boy, he managed to put on 120grams during this time.
Then three days ago he took a turn for the worst and started refusing food
again.  Ghost had become as stable as we could hope for and decided it was
time for exploratory surgery to hopefully correct what was wrong with him.
Unfortunately there was no good news to be had, Ghost was found to have an
extremely large mesenteric (sp?) lymph node and the lower part of his
intestines are very thick and abnormally shaped and textured, both of which
have been biopsied for further testing.
 
However, bad news aside..... Ghost made it through the surgery and I now
know more about what we are dealing with, Lymphoma and a problem with his
body absorbing nutrients and water due to the lower intestine.  Now I need
help, how do I battle these problems (starting with prednisone, clavamox
for post surgical infections and Timmy's Tonic) and make sure Ghost enjoys
life to the fullest?  I'm nowhere near ready to give up, but I need help as
to where to go from here!
 
Thanks for listening
Paige
 
with Thunder, Hershey, Cosmo and Ghost!
[Posted in FML issue 2421]