Day by Day

Today we took Echo to the vet for her 3 month checkup. For those who do not know, Echo was diagnosed last November with Hypercardiomyopia. She has heart problems that consist of an abnormally high heart beat, a murmur, and her left ventricle is slightly enlarged. Last December the vet had an animal heart specialist do an electrocardiogram on her heart and that is what they found. Echo goes to the vet every 3 months for a heart check and she takes 1 baby aspirin every four days to reduce her chances of having a stroke. So far, her punkiness has prevailed and she is doing great! Today the vet said that her pulse was good in her back legs (This is the area where if a cat has a stroke, it is most prevalent), her circulation was good (he checks her gums and how quickly they turn pink when he presses on them), and her eyes were clear (another way to tell if she is having respiratory problems). He told us to continue with the baby pills and keep recording her heart rate on a regular basis and that we would see him again in October! Yeah. He also said that we will do another electrocardiogram later in the year or sometime after the new year. He wants to compare the results. This is good news for us because originally when she had the first cardiogram he was going to do another after 6 months. Hopefully she will continue to do well and defy the odds. All the information I have read about this states that some cats do not survive long after being diagnosed and some can survive for several years. We are hoping for the second statement! Echo is a trooper and we cherish every moment we have with her!

The adoption side of things has been quiet. Hopefully in the next couple of months we should find out how many or how far the CCAA got with referrals for July. It should give us a better idea of how long the wait will be before we get ours. MJ and I are keeping busy by completing required lessons related to the adoption that our agency has given us. I purchased some snoopy items the other day for Meghan. I bought several snoopy sippy cups, snoopy diaper bag, and snoopy bottle. I figure a little here and a little there helps make the wait easier.