“Manual Not Included: I Never Got the Last Chapter.”

February came and suddenly Dopey was having diarrhea again. I could tell he wasn’t feeling well and I instantly freaked wondering why this was happening again. I saw there was an animal hospital right next to our house, not even a block away. I wasn’t sure from the outside if this was a good place or not but I needed to take Dopey somewhere and I didn’t want to return to the cat hospital. I made an appointment with the veterinarian they scheduled me with, Dr. Brian Hewitt. They took us into the exam room and Dopey was actually pretty quiet and good, which was not like him. When he was feisty it meant he was feeling normal or very agitated. Right then he was docile and now I was worried all over again. Dr. Hewitt came in and he was very nice and very calm and patient. He listened to everything I told him and I didn’t feel rushed. After he examined Dopey and looked at the blood work and x-rays I brought in from the other doctors, he recommended we take some more blood work and urine and that we do what they call an electrophoresis test. I asked him why we needed a test like this and what was it for? He told me the electrophoresis would narrow down whether or not Dopey had cancer and if so, what kind it might be. He said he wasn’t certain but he had a pretty good idea that Dopey did in fact have cancer. Instantly my heart dropped and I felt like I was in a tunnel. All I could hear was cancer ringing through my brain and I thought I was going to pass out. I asked him why he thought this and what kind of cancer he thought he might have. He said he needed to make a phone call and discuss Dopey’s case with a cancer specialist, and he would be right back. He took Dopey to the back room to start the tests and I immediately called Matt with the news while I was waiting in the exam room. He was shocked and had more questions than I did. I understood a lot of the things I heard because of my prior vet experience, but Matt knew nothing so everything I told him sounded foreign. Dr. Hewitt had consulted with his colleague who was a cancer specialist and worked right there in Las Vegas, and she said his theory seemed right on track. He told me the two types of cancer it might be are Lymphosarcoma or Multiple Myeloma. He said the next steps to take to find out for sure, were to have an ultrasound done and a bone marrow test. He suggested doing the ultrasound first because it was less invasive and if he saw anything he could then do a needle aspiration and send it to the lab. He said if they didn’t find anything on the ultrasound he would then put Dopey under anesthetic and do the bone marrow test. After asking him about all of the pros and cons to doing these tests and what the risk factors were, I reluctantly told him I would do it. I was scared out of my mind that something would happen to Dopey while having the tests done but I was more afraid that he would die from cancer before we could start treatment. They scheduled Dopey for two days later and I spent the whole time sick to my stomach with worry and sadness that my cat had cancer. I always pictured my cats living until they were twenty or twenty five and dying of old age. Nothing like this had even crossed my mind, especially not at the age of fourteen. I know most people probably think fourteen is a long time for animals to live and that I was lucky to have him that long. Fourteen is fairly young for cats since they can live to be over twenty years old. Either way it was not good enough for me. He was a good boy and a special boy and this was not going to be all the time I was allowed with him. When the day finally arrived Dopey was having a fit because he hadn’t had anything to eat or drink since the night before. Whenever I had to fast the boys because they were going under anesthetic for a dental, they always looked at me so pitiful and I couldn’t explain to them why this was happening. I just kept telling him that it was for his health and we needed to find out if he did in fact have cancer. I took him over to Dr. Hewitt’s office and I dropped him off. They said an outside specialist comes in to do the ultrasound tests so they weren’t sure exactly what time the procedure was going to be done. They told me to call them in the afternoon to check on his pick up time. I said no problem and to please call me sooner if he is ready to go home early. I left the office a nervous wreck and went home and cried. I couldn’t believe all of this was really happening. I felt bad for Dopey because he had been to the vet so often lately, more often than he ever had before, and I knew he must have been scared. I wondered how many hisses and spits the office would get before Dopey was sent back home. Losing Dopey After sitting at the house for awhile I decided to go out to the store and do some shopping. I needed something to do to pass the time and take my mind off of what was happening to our son. I drove down the street heading toward the mall, no more than ten minutes after I left the house. Suddenly the phone rang and it was Dr. Hewitt. He called with a frantic sound to his voice and he said, “I need you to come down right away something has happened and we’re losing him.” My heart sank and I yelled “What do you mean you’re losing him?” “What’s going on?” I immediately made a detour for the office while he explained to me that Dopey may have had some internal bleeding after the needle aspiration. I told him I was on my way and I raced over there as fast as I could. Luckily I was only minutes away and as I was pulling in the parking lot I called Matt but I couldn’t get a hold of him. My hands shook so badly that I could barely hold the phone. I managed to send Matt a text message and then I called Donna. I was hysterical! I told her what happened and she started crying and screaming, “What happened?” I told her I had just pulled into the vet office and I would call her back. I ran inside and told the receptionist who I was and she led me right to the back office. As soon as I got there I saw him on the table with the vet technician holding him and giving him oxygen. Dopey’s eyes were as wide as saucers and he kept looking frantically around as though he was blind or just coming out of anesthetic. I started calling his name and his head jerked in my direction; he heard my voice, he knew it was Momma. I went right up to him and I was petting him and talking to him in a calm tone so I wouldn’t worry him. I asked Dr. Hewitt what had happened again. He told me that they did the ultrasound and saw some abnormal shape to Dopey’s kidneys so they went in and did a needle aspiration to see if it may be the organ that was affected by his cancer. When they were done they put him in the cage and let him rest before doing the bone marrow test. He said they had not put him under anesthetic yet as they weren’t ready for the bone marrow test. The technician told me that while she was walking by the cage she noticed Dopey wasn’t acting right and immediately notified Dr. Hewitt. He thought immediately that Dopey may have had some internal bleeding caused by the needle aspiration and he called the ultrasound doctor back in. Luckily he had just driven off after Dopey was done and wasn’t far away. He told me they had done another ultrasound but couldn’t find anything and weren’t sure of what happened. They instantly started emergency care and this is where he was now. Dr. Hewitt said he called me because he really thought Dopey wasn’t going to make it and he wanted me to be there with him. I really appreciated that he took the time to call me to come over and see him. He could have just kept working on him and I could have come back later only to pick up his body. Don’t leave us. I stood there while they kept giving him oxygen and checking his vital signs. He told me Dopey was stabilizing and I could either wait or go home while he kept our son until the end of the day.