The uncertain news first:

Babe's biopsy results are in. No sign of cancer, but as I noted before, that doesn't mean it's not a lymphoma, because the prednisolone could have pushed that back down and obscured it. But it could also be the very unlikely, bizarre possibility of some lymphatic condition (there was definite signs of that, anyway), which could be autoimmune or infection-related. No way to tell at this point and no further diagnosis that can reasonably clarify it. We can either treat her for cancer she may not have, or continue and see what happens. That's an easy choice; the vet's recommendation is perfectly matched with my own gut feelings. She continues on the pred and we see how she does. If it is cancer, she'll probably start showing clinical signs again (not counting her vision, which never recovered; but the nasal discharge and/or eye discharge we saw before could return) within a couple weeks. If she's still fine after a couple weeks, we can begin to hope - and try tapering the pred to make sure we don't have her taking more than she actually needs. Whether she'll be able to stop altogether or will have to stay on some dose of it forever...who knows? If it IS cancer and comes back, we'll have to make a decision to treat or not to treat. That will depend on what they tell us, but I suspect it will be "palliative only" if it comes to that - I don't know for sure, as we haven't had the discussions in depth, but...most treatments for cancer that I am aware of don't sound like anything I'd want to put a cat through. But hopefully...hopefully, Babe has one of the weirdest cases they've seen in a while, and the pred will do it. I'm not sure what the odds are, but I don't suppose that really matters much. The odds were she had a fungal infection - 'til the tests came back negative. The odds were she had brain cancer - 'til the MRI and spinal tap came back clear for that. Those were the only two "likely" options at that point. Nasal cancer was a possibility only after the MRI, with a lymphoma being the most likely because it had responded to pred...but just because it's the "most likely" doesn't seem to mean much with this cat. I'm hoping it may be likely but it isn't what she has, that instead she has something else going on that will either remain okay after removing the medicine or remain controllable with the medicine, because the pred twice a day is very, very doable.

Good thoughts for her, please. That she is lucky, that she does better than the odds and is okay for a long time to come - the next two to three weeks will be important, mostly in judging whether she is that lucky. It doesn't look like she will get her sight back but she seems to do fine without it.

Babe is still happy, cuddly and purry. She asked to get up on my lap the other day when I was in my chair, and I scooped her up and she cuddled. Just now she's back on the bed on the floor, midway between Scott's chair and mine; earlier she was curled up between us as I napped and he read. She's still playful when teased with a toy (in fact, when she's lying there and not purring if I pet her, it's a good sign I should try the toy - I can no longer watch the dilation of her eyes for a mood cue but I can find others!).

The good news is much lesser, but I'm still happy; my latest Fantasy Bath shipment is here. Whew! You could smell that box from several feet off. Everything inside is fine, it's just that I ordered three pounds of the mango tango and it has a very strong scent. I'm happy, it got here. I could have used it last week, given the stresses, but I had other bath scenty things at the time and now I have my mango (and some new scents to try) so that's okay.

Tags: babble, cats, family, request, shopping
Current Mood: hopeful

Scott (terram) is home safe. Picking him up was a "bit" entertaining because you'd think the people in the arrivals pickup lanes had never heard of common sense or courtesy, but it wasn't dangerous, just tedious. It is so good to have him home again! I'm not sure if he would agree or not, I have managed to get him to do dishes and fold laundry and he hasn't been back in Portland three whole hours yet (not all of that at the house, even).

Though he seems pretty glad to be home. He had a good time at GenCon - and when he got there, he realized I'd had more games than just the Seventh Sea ones. I'd forgotten! I'd hesitated to sign up for the con initially, and had him get my first set of event tickets on his account. So he had to deal with those when he got there. (OTOH, at least those could be dealt with; the ones on my account were a lost cause by the time I had to cancel.) So I would also have been in a Changeling game (or rather not: it got cancelled for lack of players, Scott was the only one to show), the Seventh Sea LARP, an Immortal game, an In Nomine game, and an Ars Magica game if I'd gone. I'm actually pretty glad I didn't remember that. It doesn't bother me now - too much got done this weekend that needed to get done, and I needed to be here - but it would have bugged me a lot beforehand to give up that much. I'd come to terms with not going before I realized how much I did have available to me if I had gone.

I think I have talked him into actually posting to his LJ in a bit about some of the highlights of the con for him. :)

Tags: family, gaming, scott, travel
Current Mood: okay

In theory, Scott is most of the way to MSP, thus to return home - if all goes to schedule, he'll be in Portland in less than six hours. I should hear from him in the next hour or so to confirm that or tell me if airline woes have changed it. :)

The high today? Is supposed to be only 76. So nice after the 100+ temps of the weekend. It's presently POURING rain in buckets, and there's thunder. (My mother would have loved this summer's weather, except for the heat. I do as well.)

Babe has had her morning dose of prednisolone, which did not please her, and her treat, which did. She's settled back on the 'bed' and generally being cute. I'm not sure where Apple's got too. She was skittish and scared earlier during some thunder, so I expected her to be on the bottom shelf of Scott's desk when next I found her, but she isn't. She'll be okay, though; she may have curled up for a nap since the thunder stopped shortly thereafter. Maybe it wasn't quite bad enough to send her for cover. (Heck, maybe my petting and reassurance before she headed downstairs helped, although normally it doesn't, with her.)

Tags: cats, family, mother, scott, travel, weather
Current Mood: cheerful

Photos of Babe last night on my "bed" on the floor, and then of Apple today on it after she found it, and then the two of them together. It was sort of sad, Babe walked up and was astonished, as she started to climb on, to find Apple there - she didn't know 'til she stepped on her, of course. She backed off and settled next to her - too cute, but still, I felt bad for her.

( Thumbnails and links to bigger pictures behind the cut. )

Tags: cats, links, photography
Current Mood: okay

Just finished reading The Secrets of Jin-Shei by Alma Alexander. I never want to read it again, ever. I can't say it's a bad book. In fact, I think to get this reaction from me, it has to be a very good book in many ways. But I never, ever wish to read it again. (I cannot recommend it, for obvious reasons; neither can I explain my reaction without spoilering the entire thing, even worse than the jacket cover already does. And the jacket cover is AWFUL for spoilers. If you want to read the book, give the publisher blurbs a miss!)

Tags: books

I had better sleep in the bed tonight, with no cats about me. Babe spent a lot of the night by my feet, which would be fine except I gradually subsided to where I could pet her when I stirred, which meant I wasn't on the more-padded surface I'd intended (yes, I had the sleeping bag under me, but not as much of the beanbag). I fixed that along about 3 am, but as I was doing so, she claimed the pillow that was meant to support me, so it kind of came out a wash in the end. She seemed quite content on the pillow, though, and it was nice to have her cuddled against me. Nice, but not necessarily ideal in terms of comfort.

Then, she only had two medicines (the painkiller and the pred) this morning, instead of three. Technically she should have had one last dose of the antibiotic. Non-technically, the pharmacy that mixed it up apparently mixed up exactly that many doses...and it's a shake well, invert, and dispense bottle. There was no getting a last dose out of it, and I gave up. (The odds are good that it isn't what was helping her in any case, but even if it had been, I was going to be lucky to get even a few drops, let alone the full dose.) She was wary when I gave her her treat after only one nasty medicine - but I think fairly pleased. She's kitty-loafing in the middle of the living room floor right now, while Apple has sprawled on the cat stand.

I forgot to put the soup on last night. *facepalm* So it is cooking today after all, instead of last night when it might have made more sense. Oh, well. It will still be edible - albeit now ready for dinner instead of lunch (I adjusted the cooking method to the faster option so it wouldn't be a late-evening snack).

Tags: cats, food, health, positive
Current Mood: okay

Going to make a bean soup overnight for enjoyment tomorrow (I love me my crockpot), assuming all goes well and I can manage to follow a basic recipe. The beans are soaking now. Normally I wouldn't consider this too insane, but normally we're not having 100-degree weather. But it's easy (in theory) and it sounded good, and there's much to be said for that.

On a saner note, going to make a peach/blueberry salad (one peach, some blueberries, since it's just me). That's a little cooler. But not going to make it yet: still overheated from the shopping trip. Also returned library books and picked a couple up.

I'd have done myself a huge service if I'd gone out the door at 10:30 when I thought I should, instead of 11:45 when I actually did, in terms of outside temperature. :P At least the car has AC (and so does the house)!

Tags: food, weather
Current Mood: hot

Honestly, I think today's Two Lumps gives Snooch too much cleverness. It's too clever to be a stupid mistake as you'd expect for him. But I don't care, because it's a horribly terribly beautifully funny pun, and I have had a very good giggle at it.

Tags: funny, links
Current Mood: giggly

We start prepping to leave in about an hour. Good thoughts for Babe, please. (She's presently lying on the orange pillow on the floor next to my chair - it's there to keep the doors of the writing desk shut since they like to swing open - and looking resigned. The latter owes something to no food since 10 pm last night, I assume. She purrs nicely when petted, though, and at least this time she got to have water!)

I'll put food down for Apple before I go. And because there's a chance Babe's procedure may be preempted by an emergency (not likely, but it can happen), I realized maybe I should take her food with so they can feed her if she's not going to be sedated after all (since I cannot pick her up early in that case unless the sealing is done early). I don't know if they can, but since they eat dry, I will take her serving along with and ask. If they say no (or if they say yes but she's not preempted), it will keep just fine until tonight.

Now to go make sure I have everything I want/need to get through the day away from home. Granted a lot of it is scheduled/taken up but I can't really know how long the plumber at the Ridge will take or when I'll be able to get back into my neighborhood. My guess is it will be before 4 pm. It depends on the weather which is supposed to be VERY hot today, no rain or clouds; the sky looks well-suited to that forecast so far.

Tags: cats, request
Current Mood: okay