We're still here

I know things have been quiet here on The Kaesea Report. Life=busy.

This week, wedged between my two trips, our hot water heater sprung a leak and had to be replaced. Bill is a superhero -- I discovered the leak at 12:30am, he had the old water heater removed by 1:30am, bought a new one at 6am, and we had hot water at 11am. Wow. Want to know the only way I know how to replace a hot water heater? With the phone.

But that's the non-Kaesea stuff. You're here for the Kaesea stuff, right? Not too much has changed there, unfortunately. We re-tested on Wednesday for the pancreatitis and it looks like it is just as inflamed, based on the ultrasound. Ugh. They also did bloodwork, which comes back today, but I have a feeling it will show the same thing. There is no "cure" for pancreatitis, so we continue to treat it supportively: fluids for dehydration and medicine for the pain.

On one hand, it's good to have something we can point to that is causing Kaesea's lack of appetite. On the other, it's been 2 weeks Saturday since he was initially diagnosed with pancreatitis and I am feeling defeated about the lack of progress we have made since then.

We have removed Kaesea from almost every drug that he was taking, which is good. He is down to his baby doses of Pepcid, a pain killer, and fluids every other day. Now we are just playing a waiting game to see if his pancreas will heal itself.

He has been pretty much maintaining his weight this week, which is better than losing it. He had a bit of a spike last week (9.75 -- everyone was happy) but he has been sitting at about 9.44-9.5 since then. Although maintaining is better than losing, he really needs to gain weight to get better. We continue to attempt to feed him during every spare moment. Your hungry thoughts are appreciated.

I do have daily photos of Kaesea, but am leaving very soon on my next trip, so they will have to wait for my return. Crazy busy travel schedule lately. Ugh. Who could have known that all of this would happen when I made these plans? I guess you never really know.

So instead I will tell you an "Aw" story: When I came home this past Sunday from my last trip, I went right into the bedroom to see Kaesea where he was hanging out in his cat tower. He usually just waits for me to come up to him in the cat tower to greet him. This time, he was so excited to see me that he jumped down two tiers and trotted over quickly to give me a big head butt. What a heart breaker.

As I write this, it is 6am on Friday morning. I am leaving very soon, which fills me with nervousness about how Kaesea will do in my absence. But I know that I cannot keep him here through the force of sheer will -- either he is staying or he is not and that's up to him and his body. My hope is that I have good news to report when I return. Please think good thoughts for Bill and Kaesea while I am gone.