I'm pretty new to this newsletter but have posted a couple of messages
and responded to some which allowed me the opportunity to meet really
nice folks.  I would like to thank all of you who have been praying for
Charisma's recovery.  Unfortunately I'm sorry to announce that she crossed
the bridge last night around 8:30p.m.
 
Charisma had been dealing with chronic diarreha for almost a year.  We had
many ups and downs throughout that year.  We had made many of trips to
several different doctors hoping to find some resolution.  She had been
placed on every medication imaginable and finally one doctor recommened a
biopsy.  Of course because of her speratic declines in health and due to
the fact she had lost quite a bit of weight, I was hesitant to put her
through this.  I saught a second opionion from Dr. Karen Purcell, a doctor
I had only found 2 days prior, and she agreed that this was the only way
to find out what was wrong with her.
She was diagnosed with
- Left adrenal gland: Multifocal Nodular adrenocortical cell hyperplasia
  (removed during biopsy)
- small intestine: mild diffuse mucosal eosinophilic enteritis
 
there is no evidence of neoplasia in the examined sections.  The appearance
of the small intestinal mucosa is consistent w/occult parasitism or an
allergic hypersensitivity disorder.
 
Her diet was changed to all turkey (rather than chicken) and placed on
pediapred.  A week later she experienced kidney problems & placed in ICU
for several days while they were flushed out.  She recovered from that,
but the following week was rushed to the hospital again & diagnosed with
pneamonia.  Once she was eating & drinking again, she was sent home.  The
past few weeks she was very tired, slept quite a bit, & wouldn't make the
effort to get herself the food bowl so I syringe fed her duck soup every
3-4 hours.  In the meantime she began showing pain in stomach from the
pediapred which she had been placed back on after the 4 days in ICU with
the pneamonia.  Dr. Purcell took her off the pediapred immediately and
concentrated on getting her back to normal from the pneamonia and hopefully
putting some weight on her.  She was doing alright until yesterday morning
when she seemed to be experiencing more stomach pain and then found blood
in her stool.  She rushed in for a Tagamet shot to coat her stomach.  Her
lungs were checked during the visit but they sounded clear.  She didn't
want to eat much & I didn't want to stress her out & cause more problems
to the stomach so I let her sleep a bit.  However around supper time
when I took her out for a duck soup feeding, she would barely wake up.  I
immediately called Dr. Purcell who recommended syringing Nutri-Cal & duck
soup into her immediately but it didn't seem to change her state.  She was
rushed to the hospital for fluids but while speaking with the doctor she
went limp in my arms.  The doctor immediately grabbed her from my arms and
rushed her in for oxygen & fluids.  He came back in the room within 5
minutes to tell me that her heart rate was rapidly decreasing & she wasn't
responding to the light test.  The next time he arrived in the room with
Charisma in his arms wrapped in a blanket.  My baby had had enough &
decided to cross the Rainbow Bridge.
 
I've requested an autopsy and once done will take her home for a proper
burial.
 
This is my first loss and I'm having such a tough time with it because we
went through so much together.  But fortunately I do have 2 more wonderful
ferrets who will help get me through this tough time.
 
I'd like to thank the support of Dr. Purcell, Dr. Dyer, all the other
doctors involved at Angell Memorial & those who have been in touch through
emails.
 
Alicia Cali
[Posted in FML issue 3216]