George wrote:
>I think the lesson to be learned here, as far as vet bills are concerned
>is, where there's a will, there's a way.
 
Yep.  That's what it boils down to, I think.
 
Yes, those bills got very frightening.  The suffering attached can be
worse.  It's one of the reasons I worry so much about folks who breed for
looks first.  We have and have had ferrets who came complete with serious
deformities due to that pursuit, and I'll tell you one thing that we have
learned: the ones with serious deformities never have just one serious
deformity.  One of our little ones in that boat (a current male, Scooter)
has averaged one major surgery a year and often needs several ultrasounds
a year.
 
It didn't help of course, that the hospital which had our ferret
specialist vet till mid last year has very high prices.  Since then we
have been getting the same level of care for about 2/3 of the price but
now have about an hour drive to Bellemead, NJ to see Joe Martins since
he moved.
 
Also, Sevie's care has been very expensive.  She wasn't a pacemaker
candidate due to two other inoperable problems (one of which seems to
have settled itself) but it would have been a hard call if she had been.
I know which way we would have gone, because of how we are, still it
would have hurt financially a lot.
 
Steve and I do agree on those costs.  What we do for things on which we
don't agree is we have an agreed-upon set amount of totally independent
money each year that each of us controls.  We call it our fun money
though it is not only spent on fun things.  The other person has no say
about how it is spent.  It's just a small fraction of living costs, but
it does mean that financial disagreements almost never exist and that is
a real plus.
 
Sevie scared us badly last night again.  Once again she felt dead.
Her meds are pegged now so there is nowhere to go with her advanced
insulinoma and late stage heart disease from complete a/v heart node
block.  When her insulinoma goes out of control her heart gets worse.
 
She got herself under a trunk where she never goes.  Steve and i had to
convince Sherman to find her for us.  He's good at that but won't always
do it, though when he can be convinced you can have him find every family
member sequentially for you.  He found her for us.
 
When I reached under for her her legs were stiff and cold.  Sevie's
always kind of cold now with her cardiac insufficiency but not that
cold and not stiff.  It was another seizure and the tag along heart
complications.  She did this once before recently, and she rapidly feels
like a corpse when she does it.  Poor thing is never really warm on her
own any longer so a bit worse and she is like ice.
 
She likes soup at 110'F and soaking baths or showers at about that same
temp.  Last night she kissed Steve after we got her out and we got hot
soup into her.  Later she soaked in a hot bath for 45 minutes.  She loves
that now.  One of us will provide gentle words and a hand to rest her
head on.  When she wants to come out she lets us know, but she will soak
in hot water as happily as either of us can.
 
She can't have much more time left in her now, but her mouth sore is
healed so she is without pain, and we'll just let her and her condition
call the shots.  She got an extra good 7 months that no one expected and
that is what is important.  (For those interested her current meds
entail: Carafate and Listerine swabs several times day when she gets
mouth sores, injected Lasix every few days when the oral isn't enough,
Enacard once a day, oral Lasix 3 times a day, oral Prednisone twice a
day, oral Diazoxide twice a day, and oral Aminophylline twice a day.
Four of those meds are compounded.)  A lot of life centers around her
now.  When it's time it will just be time, I guess, same as ever.
[Posted in FML issue 4037]