This past Sunday, my beloved 16 year old baby Sydney, passed on at 4:03pm after battling and succumbing to an upper respiratory infection. For those of you who remember me, I came on to this blog roughly four years ago, when my beloved Sydney was diagnosed with nasal lymphoma. She completed a 6-month chemotherapy protocol, amongst a million other things, however, beat the odds and lived a happy and healthy life with four years of her cancer in remission. This past month, my other cat Charlie came down with a severe case of pneumonia, which required he be placed in an oxygen tank for several days, IV fluids, and 24 hour surveillance. When it was determined that Charlie had pneumonia - I put Sydney in my bedroom (where Charlie never goes), and preceded to disinfect the entire house. I spent hours and hours scrubbing every surface, trying to prevent Sydney from getting infected. When Charlie came home - he was isolated in another room and provided hourly feedings, etc. to nurse him back to health. Everyone that touched Charlie were required to wash their hands, shower, and change their clothes. Just as Charlie began to improve, Sydney stopped eating. I began feeding her with a syringe to ensure she was getting nourishment, meanwhile, taking her to my vet. My vet ignored my concerns, and told me that I and Sydney were no longer welcome at their facility, because they did not feel comfortable with my husband's and I's questions regarding care. Even though I had spent over $10000 with this facility, they through me and my then sick baby out with no where to go. I considered this to be extremely unethical and it disjointed Sydney's care in the midst of her health crisis. My wonderful husband went straight out and found me a wonderful vet, who provided Sydney more care then Sydney's previous vet had given her in years. Sydney had developed a severe form of anemia, as well as a severe case of hypothyroidism, which caused decreased her immune system stagnating her body's ability to fight off the infection. This was completely ignored by my other vet. My new vet provided me with a complete work up, as well as iron supplementation, IV fluids, three different antibiotics, prednisolone, n-acetylcystine, high calorie food, etc. Sydney was taken care of my by mother and I, 24 hours a day. Despite our continued care, Sydney continued to become weaker and weaker. At this point, we were concerned that the infection and stress she had experienced had brought out the cancer we had worked so hard to put into remission. This past Sunday, my mom woke me up (she was the morning shift), to tell me that she thought my baby didn't have that much longer. At this point, Sydney had lost her ability to walk and was struggling to breathe. I took her into the shower twice to try and open her sinuses, but she just seemed so fatigued from the continued anemia and low thyroid levels. Around 3:50pm, my baby looked at me in my eyes, as if to tell me that she was letting go. My mom and I held her closely to us and kept telling her how much we loved her. Sydney was our companion, our friend, our child, our baby - and she was looking into our eyes and slowly letting go. She gasped for air a few times, but remained calm and listened to our voices and she slowly and peacefully went to the rainbow bridge. This has been the saddest day of my life and I cannot express how heart broken I am to have lost my child. We worked so hard and for so many years to keep her alive, and to have her succumb to a respiratory infection is more than devastating. I feel as if my world has been turned up side down and I am living in this parallel universe that doesn't really exist. I cannot believe she is gone and my mom and I are just shattered that out little baby is no longer here. The house seems so empty, my chest seems so hollow, and I just can't believe I have to live the rest of my life with out my baby. She gave us purpose, she gave us strength, she gave us so much that we will always remember just how special she was. If you are reading this - I hope you can relate to how much we loved our kitty. As our kitties are our family.If loved could have saved you Sydney - you would have lived forever. [Broken hearted - and sobbing profusely]
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