Still going strong

Freya in her new bed in her new house.

I have been adding up the time and it is coming up to 5 years since Freya developed her cancer.

The day to day reality of a kitty tripod has become the norm and I want to let people know there is plenty of life and love after the decision to amputate.

I see some blogs where the time after the operation has been shorter than hoped but no regrets.

I am here to show long term is more than possible and of her nearly 14 years, nearly five have been on three legs.

Wishing everyone happy times with your fur children with four legs or three

All is well in the land of the three legged three years and three months on

Well, not a lot to report (which is fantastic) but thought I would do a quick update.

It is now 3 years and 3 months (nearly, but the alliteration was too much not to go for in the title) post amputation for Freya and she will be 12 years old next month. Wow time flies all around. She was so little when I rescued her and we were in a different state even. And here we are now, several moves later in the lovely Blue Mountains and the chill of autumn just peaking in after a rather prolonged summer spurt at the end of February into March.

I thought I would very briefly discuss ear scratching. Freya still tilts her head down to meet her missing leg and the stump moves madly but futilely. After three years she still does it and I have to assume that most kitties do. If I am near I go over and give a scratch where I think she wants it – and she quickly lets you know if you’ve hit the spot or not! It doesn’t seem to cause her discomfort in any way and if I can’t get to her in time she just shakes her head and usually rolls onto the floor and rubs around a bit – I guess to rub at the itch. In all other ways she seems to not notice the leg is gone, but she still tries to phantom scratch I suppose you could call it. Just an observation and not a concern. You can also trigger her stump with a scratch in the right spot!

She continues to love her cat tree and loves to loll around on her favourite level in the sun. Her calendar pose (she’s a model!) was on the cat tree and it was so appropriate. She is curled up on the couch asleep right now after a rather long grooming session, so all is definitely right in our world.

In all ways she continues to be my loving sweetie kitty and that missing limb is something that is no bother.

Take care

Freya’s mum

 

 

 

Life is good

It is coming up to three years since I found that lump on Freya’s leg. Three years.

And I have to say – amidst the confusion of diagnosis and panic and despair  – amputation was the best decision and started a journey that continues to this day, and hopefully for many more.

I can only repeat that, as I sit here watching her curled up asleep on the chair she has jumped up to, it was the right thing.

It wasn’t an easy thing. Let no one tell you any different. Probably one of the hardest calls I have had to make.  But it was a good one.

Tripawds helped so much in my making the decision. Particularly the kitty blogs. My thanks to all those who helped with their stories, their advice and tips, their pictures and most of all,  the love they have for their furry bundles of fun.

Freya is good. I even sometimes forget when new people come over that she is just the tiniest bit different to their eyes.

  • She runs (albeit low to the ground)
  • She jumps (perhaps not as high)
  • She purrs (louder than ever)
  • She eats (perhaps a bit too much)
  • She sleeps (like a good kitty should)

Best. Decision. Ever.

 

A year (and more ie 14 months) on and all is well

Hi all

It has been such a long time since I posted – I can only but apologise and say that life became a maelstrom of activity.

But to the important stuff – Freya is well and happy albeit…. it must be admitted …. a bit too rotund for a tripod kitty.

After the amputation she got better and better every day and I was more and more certain that the best decision had been made. I then had to make a choice about moving home and so in late March 2013 Freya and I made the move across town. The place we were moving to was single storey which I was quite pleased about as while she was OK at getting up and down the stairs I thought it would still be easier for her at one level. I liked the new place and in fact it reminded me of the Queenslander style homes I rented in Rockhampton and I recalled how Freya would regularly launch herself up the security screen door at our last Queenslander style house to try and get to geckos. And the new place had screen doors even  … although these ones were flimsy ie not security. All in all, feeling pretty good with the move.

And the actual move did go well  – Freya is experienced at moving around (with a big trip from Rockhampton in Queensland to the Blue Mountains in 2002) and she was enjoying the new place a lot. I had friends help out and it was good.  One really good thing was that the large cat tree I had was in a new spot (I had kept her from it after the amputation) and I set up a few boxes around it so she could get up to part of it and when my back was turned she managed to get all the way up to the top!! I was so pleased and feeling that the move was a really positive step.

One dark cloud came along shortly though, which was that a friend of mine visited over Easter (about 2 weeks after we moved) and accidentally stepped on Freya’s remaining rear foot (quite heavily) which resulted in a soft tissue injury which meant Freya began falling over on her rear leg – it was obviously sore and the look she would give me when she collapsed backwards – heart wrenching. It was really difficult to see her fall over, which she was doing all the time after the injury, and I was quite upset.

But, she appeared to be recovering from it quite well, and then the real bad thing happened. You see, I wasn’t the only one who had been reminiscing about Freya jumping up screen doors, it appeared she was too. So one evening, about two weeks after her soft tissue injury, she was looking out the screen door and jumped up. The problem, the screen is not security and so there was no support and she started to tear the fly screen material and so she did as she had done in the past, jumped off backward … but this time, instead of landing on two healthy legs, she fell onto her one leg which was already injured and so she went down hard. She curled in a little ball and hissed when I went near her – she was hurting bad.

I was devastated.  Dark cloud replaced by stormy weather with lots of tears .. I mean rain.

That night she eventually uncurled from the floor and actually jumped up on the bed, but as soon as she got up on the bed you could see she was really hurt and so she again curled up and didn’t move. I was so upset I had the next day off work and made an appointment with the vet. He confirmed that she had injured herself and that she was to be confined to a room where there was nothing for her to jump up to, and to keep her contained in that way until her leg got better and with a soft tissue injury, that could be a while. At my darkest moments in that period I imagined what would happen if she lost the use of her remaining rear leg, how would she cope, what would that mean and so on. Those dark thoughts did not make me feel good and so I had to make myself calm down and take it a day at a time.

So, I moved from my bedroom into the spare room, set up a mattress on the floor and for the next 6 weeks she was pretty confined to about two rooms. She would seem to get better and then she’d fall over again. I kept a record and when she had one full day without falling back onto her leg I’d let her access a bit more of the house. There were regular set backs of course and it took a really long while for her to get better but eventually I moved back into my own room and she was able to get on the bed and get around without falling over at all. It probably took about three to four months, so it was around June/ July last year when I’d say she was back to as good as she could be.

And then, because I obviously prescribe to some kind of sympathy pain, I began limping myself and was eventually diagnosed as having a knee cap out of alignment along with osteoarthritis. So for a while it was a great combo at my place – a three legged cat and an owner on a cane/crutch. And yes, the jokes from my friends and work colleagues did get a bit repetitive after a while. But I’m improving all the time and haven’t needed a crutch for months now.

So there you have it – Freya has had a few setbacks (soft tissue injury followed by a bad landing) but she getting around well and gets up the big cat tree (via another smaller piece of cat furniture) and all. I also have plastic crates set up beneath another window for her to get up easily and look out into the backyard. When I find my camera charger I’ll take some photos of her setups so you can see for yourself.

I also came up with a solution for the screen doors as, even after her injury, she would sit at the screen and look up – and you can imagine how that made me feel. I didn’t want to keep the doors closed all the time as I’d feel like a prisoner in my own home and yet I didn’t want Freya jumping up and hurting herself again. I theorised that if she saw something a bit further up the screen that it would stop her and so I took some heavy duty clear plastic wrap (such as gets put around newspapers) and taped it about a foot and a half off the floor across the width of the screen door. And it seems to work a treat. She still sits at the screen doors and looks out and of course she still looks up, sees the plastic and makes no move to jump up. I’ll take a photo of that as well – it might be something for others to consider as well.

The next challenge will be to get her weight down and then maintain it. Wish us luck with that.

So, here we are, some 14 months after discovery of her sarcoma and 13 months after the amputation and I have to say it has been a roller coaster but she and I have come through it. The initial diagnosis, without amputation, was six months but the choice I made has meant she is still here with me. The diagnosis also said that, if we got the sarcoma early enough, the removal of her leg could be a cure and as the months pass and no sign of any other lumps (and believe me, I check regularly) it makes me more and more certain that the decision for amputation, whilst agonising, was the best one.