Gibbys Fight

☑️Bile acids improved but still somewhat elevated
☑️Blood panel/ labs looking good!
❌Calcium elevated 🥹

Overall not terrible news for Gibbys test results from his appointment yesterday. 🧡

We are increasing his alendronate starting next Monday and will schedule him for a recheck of ionized calcium in a month. 🤞

4 month post surgery testing was today! The tech said they will call with results tomorrow likely. 🤞

Gibbys ionized calcium came back lower than previous results but still slightly high so Dr. Davis recommends giving him an increased amount of psyllium husk mixed in his wet food.

His next appointment is scheduled for September 23rd where they will do a complete blood count and chemistry panel and a bile acids test. These tests will help determine improvement levels 4 months post surgery.

We are still chipping away at the balance on care credit and know it will be hard to catch up with more appointments, testing costs and continued prescriptions and food. If able, any amount at all helps us keep up the fight for our little man. 🧡

https://gofund.me/9b686f19

The pic below was this morning when I had to wake him up for his meds from his little snug spot, he wasn’t too impressed but still lookin cute as ever. 😻

Gibby is tired and snoozing after a trip to Dove Lewis to see his internal medicine specialist for his 3 month post surgery check in.

Today they ran an iodized calcium test to check to see if his levels are still at bay, she will have the results tomorrow and give us a call.

In a little over a month we will go back to have them run another bile acids test and full blood panel to see how his progesss is coming along.

Dr. Davis was happy with him looking more brighter and alert at his appointment.

For now he will stay on his medication regimen. It could take several months for the cellophane banding to continue to close his shunt but things are looking up. 🧡

Bath day 🧡🛁

Gibby got his staples out today, the incision healed up perfectly 🧡😻🧡

Our little man is still doing wonderful.

The results of the liver biopsy that was done during his surgery came back, Dr. Sundholm said there wasn’t anything else significant besides the signs stemming from the shunt, a releif to hear.

4 more days until Gibby gets his staples removed, his little tummy is healing very well. 🧡

Gibbys appetite seems to have increased since surgery already which is wonderful!

He currently weights less than 6 pounds and still the size of a kitten at a year and ten months old.

I hope he can finally start to grow and gain some much needed weight as his shunt shrinks and his liver functions more properly. 🤞

Below our the special compounded medications and prescribed food that has kept him alive while waiting for surgery. Keppra (to control seizures), Laculose and Metronidazole along with his renal wet food.

His medications from NW Compounders run average $300 a month and his food we order every 1 1/2 to 2 weeks and runs average $150 a month.

After a few months, as his shunt adjusts and shrinks, under supervision of his internal medicine specialist, and blood panel checks Gibby should be able to begin tapering off of some of these medications.

Back in December 21st, when Gibbys original surgery was scheduled, the money we had left to go towards Gibbys surgery was used for the over $2600 in testing that had to be performed due to his hypercalcemia unfortunately. 🥹 Thankfully I was able to get my care credit limit increased and able to charge his $6539 for surgery on there with fixed monthly payments.

Thank you for everyone who has donated, and all of the thoughts, prayers and kind words of encouragement to help us continue our little guys healing journey. 🙏🧡 We couldn’t of continued this without his entire support team and appreciate everyone more than words can express.

Today is 1 week post surgery, Gibby is doing wonderful! 👏

Lots of snug naps while his surgery site heals. 🧡

Gibbys little front legs look like he’s wearing fur boots with the way they had to shave him for the IV’s for surgery. 🧡

He seems to be doing well so far with continued recovery at home. His last dose of bupenorphine was yesterday.

For now he continues his same medication regimen he has been on for months now, keppra, metronidazole, laculose and his prescription renal wet food.

Eventually as the shunt shrinks we can taper off some medications but it may be months and will be monitored through blood work, all follow up rechecks with his internal medicine specialist.

We continue to keep a close eye on him and check his staples twice a day to ensure they look clean and well.

On June 7th we scheduled his post surgery re-check appointment where they will be able to remove his staples. 🧡

5:27am ICU update 🧡😻

Gibbys update this morning was good, whew.

Sounds like he’s eating and drinking on his own. 🧡

Last night Dr. Sundholm called and mentioned Gibby was a little twitchy when switching him from his IV pain meds to oral. They gave him an extra keppra injection on top of his normal 3x a day oral keppra he already takes to help.

She also mentioned due to his sensitivity to noise they put him in an incubator, without it turned on of course to help keep it a little more quiet for him. Also that he seemed better when being held and so everyone has been taking turned holding him in his snuggly blanky.

Picture below of him the ICU doctor sent with his overnight update. 🧡

Gibbys doing well so far in recovery 🧡🙏

Just got the call, Gibby is out of surgery, everything went well! 🙌 Such a huge relief to hear those words!

He’s awake and bundled and being kept warm in ICU.

His surgeon will be the daytime ICU doctor for the next few days and keeping close eye on him and will giving us twice daily updates until pick up this weekend.

Whew 😅

Dr. Sundhom, the surgeon, just called to let us know they are starting surgery now 🧡🙏

We just dropped Gibby off for surgery and met with the surgery team at 9am.🧡

They will run pre-op blood work and preparing him for surgery this am. His surgery will be likely this afternoon, the surgery technitions will text us to let us know when he’s going in and also when his surgery is complete.

Gibby will be in ICU post-op estimated 72-80 hours for recovery and we should be able to pick him up on Saturday.

Through all of the emotions, numerious set backs, we are relieved this can finally happen today.

We will keep everyone posted, thank you for all of the kind hearted individuals who have continued to pray and support this little fighter. 🧡

Gibbys surgery is rescheduled for May 22nd! 🧡

We will bring him in at 9am that day and he will stay 3 days post surgery in the hospital for monitoring.

Although he’s had set backs, testing and additional appointments for his calcium level concern since last time we brought him in for surgery, it’s a relief to know he can still go forward with it and he isn’t having any other major health concerns.

If able to help Gibby with his continued surgery cost and hospitalization, medication’s, food it’s greatly appreciated, his grant money we had on file at Dove Lewis was exausted with the almost $3,000 in testing he had done and the last few internal medicine appointments/ follow up testing. We have spent over $17,000 on saving our sweetie so far and could not have done it without the help of individuals and grant donatons. His surgery and hospitalization alone will be an additioal cost between $6500-$8900.

We can’t thank everyone enough for fighting for our baby. https://gofund.me/74eb9145

At Gibbys appointment yesterday his calcium was lowered a very small amount from 1.84 down to 1.71 and is still above the normal range. He will be starting a new medication he will take once a week called Alendronate.

The good news is we can reschedule his liver shunt surgery and don’t have to wait for the medication to lower his calcium. The words we were waiting for! 🙏

We should find out tomorrow what dates are available to schedule his surgery and have it set again.

What a roller coaster this has all been, all worth it for our sweet little fighter. 🧡

Gibbys appointment with his new internist went well, his ionized calcium has improved some but she would still like to see it lower.

For food he is currently on Royal canin renal support D and she would like him to switch to Royal canin renal support T as there has been a recent study that the T version is better for cats with hypercalcemia.

He has a follow up appointment scheduled April 8th to recheck his calcium levels to see if they have improved more with the diet change along with the continuation of psyllium husk.

She explained that this will not keep him from being able to reschedule his surgery soon. 😻🧡