February 10-11, 2013

On Saturday, February 9, we had quite a shock... Izzy, our 13 year old cat, took what we originally thought was a fall from the second floor railing. I was sitting in our breakfast nook area, kind of watching the Notre Dame-Louisville game, kind of dozing off. Roger was in his office. We heard a thump, and we saw Izzy walking in a very odd way. At first, we thought that he had broken his leg, and we called the vet. The vet recommended that we give Izzy half of a baby aspirin. Of course, we didn't have any so Roger ran out to the store, and I held Izzy, getting really sucked into the ND game. Five overtimes later, ND had won; Izzy had taken his pill, and we were completely exhausted...

During the next day, Izzy stayed in our main level bathroom and grew increasingly lethargic. We really got concerned about 9 p.m., and we decided to take him to the animal hospital in Parkersburg, WV. When we arrived, they did an x-ray and discovered that he did not have any broken bones. By this time, it's evident that Izzy can't move at all. We were really stressed, trying to decide what to do. We asked the vet how we should proceed... She said that she would take him to Columbus.

We drove back to Athens and then up to Columbus, arriving at Medvet around 1:30 a.m. From there, the ER and medical staff were amazing!! The ER doc was wonderfully reassuring, comforting, and confident. We slept for a few hours in the conference room while Izzy stayed in the ICU, getting fluids and undergoing testing. We met with the neurologist around 10 a.m., and he was amazing too! He was so knowledgeable and comforting, and we were pretty sure that Izzy had either experienced a stroke, suffered from an infection, or had an inoperable tumor on his spine-- not fun choices! We agreed to let Izzy stay in the ICU and get a MRI. (Interestingly, he had to have the MRI over at Children's Hospital!)

Blessedly, the MRI results came back positively, indicating that Izzy had a stroke-- the easiest thing to deal with for a recovery! After a spinal tap on Wednesday (2/13), we were very hopeful about the prognosis, and we allowed Izzy to stay for a few days of rehab. Again, the rehab therapist was also awesome! We were blessed that so many of the staff members truly seem to love cats! We brought him home on Saturday, February 16.

As of right now, we continue to give Izzy home therapy, and he is getting better all of the time. It's been time-consuming, but we are so grateful that Izzy is going to be okay!