Numbers, numbers

Dammit. Even though Kaesea ate a lot more food this weekend, his weight today was 9.6 pounds, down from 9.8 last week. I hate this news.

Also, they took the PCV (blood oxygen levels) and it's 24, down from 25. They say there is a rounding error of a 1-2%, so I shouldn't be too upset about that as it is still considered "holding steady." But then I'm thinking: "Then why not just round it up 1 percent?" Apparently they cannot.

I will now let Kaesea demonstrate my feelings about these two bits of news:

They are sending the blood out for a full lab report today, so we should have more data on that tomorrow.

Having led with the bad news, I will now share some small bit of good news. Kaesea found one of his all time favorite toys in the house yesterday (a rubber ring described in this post) and he was playing with that thing in a way that he has not played with it in years.

At first, I did not even realize what he was doing, but then I saw the full stunt: He puts it on the verrrry edge of the bed and then he gently knocks it off, racing it to the floor, catching it before it gets there. This is a game he used to play in an apartment we lived in back in '97, but he would play it off of the side of a flight of stairs... usually from the 5th or 6th step. He would fly down that wall racing those rings to the ground. It was pretty funny then and it was really nice to see him playing that way again yesterday.

I may actually have a photo of him doing that years ago. I should scan it in a post it here. Anyone want to see young Kaesea doing dives for rings? I think we need that. I'll look for it soon.

His less amusing way of "playing" with his rings is to hold one in his mouth and then figure out the loudest possible MEOW he can make while holding onto it. The things act as some sort of megaphone, so he really ends up belting it out. It's not pleasant at night, but I can deal with it during the day. Mostly.

He also played with his carrot toy yesterday and was in generally good spirits. I love to see him so playful -- according to his oncologist, this means that the chemo and prednisone are working. Someone asked me today how we will know if the cancer is gone and the real answer is: We won't. The only way to find out for sure is to take a biopsy and we're all in agreement that Kaesea can not be put under anesthesia again, given his reaction this past time. But they also say that you can tell in the cat's attitude -- acting younger, playing, more energy. And he has all of that.

He still needs to eat more. I offer him fresh food frequently and he usually takes it when I give it, but I have to work and sleep, so there's a good 14 hours that I cannot be pushing food on him. I wish he would eat more on his own. I know it's a slow road to recovery. I know that. But it's still damned frustrating.