bradley!!!!!!!
today (july 19) is bradley's 11th birthday, which ended up being unexpectedly significant. i'm talking about animal illness under the cut, if you don't want to read that just know that bradley is a perfect little guy whom we love very much and he's doing ok now.
remember this? in early may, bradley started losing weight, stopped being as active, stopped grooming as much, was more aggressive, etc etc. all things you didn't want to see. he went from totally fine to clearly very sick over the course of just a few weeks.
when we got him in to the vet, they discovered a large mass in his abdomen and did an ultrasound to find a tumor surrounding his digestive system. large cell lymphoma; rapidly progressing, inoperable due to its size and location. barring a miracle, remission wasn't going to happen. the best we could do was improving quality of life.
there was a good chance he wouldn't make it to this birthday. if we hadn't gotten him to the vet when we did, he almost certainly wouldn't have.
our goal, as we told our vet, was that we didn't want to give up on him. if there was any chance of treatment helping him feel better for even just a little bit, it was worth doing. we started him on steroids that night with a followup scheduled for two weeks to see how he'd been progressing.
first off: i am so thankful that bradley made this easy for us. the steroids are in tablet form, which means they can go into a pill pocket no problem, and we know from experience (bradley has never been sick but he has broken into the cabinet to eat an entire bag of pill pockets that we bought for website) that he will demolish a pill pocket no problem. he has, at this point, been conditioned into understanding that this is Part Of His Routine now and will come yell at us if he thinks it's time for him to have it.
that first night, when we was still tired from the vet, tired from being sick, we put the tablet and pill pocket down in front of him and he ate it up immediately.
we started seeing improvement the next day. he was slowly becoming more talkative, eating more, more receptive to pets. he started grooming again. he dropped about a pound the first night, but stayed stable from then on. when we got him some really nutrient dense food, it became his new favorite treat. his personality started coming back, even the obnoxious parts. he was still sick, but he was feeling and doing better.
when he went back in for his followup, the ultrasound matched what we'd seen: the mass was smaller, he had lost all the loose fluid he'd been carrying (likely the pound he dropped the first night), his weight was stable, he was passing food easily, and his personality was back.
he is a celebrity at our vet office. everyone loves him. when we picked him up from his last appointment, one of the vet techs was so excited when he came out. "you guys have bradley??? i LOVE bradley!!!" this is because he is a polite and affectionate young man who hates cars but is totally fine once he gets where he's going. also because, seemingly, the majority of vet techs at that office are gay and we already know how he feels about gay people (he's an Ally).
ANYWAY. i haven't wanted to say anything about this because, when we didn't know what was happening, it felt too personal. at this point we know what's happening: bradley is sick, and that's not going to change, but he is happy and responding to treatment well. he is eating enough and, since in the end this is a wasting disease, that's an important metric to track. his weight is stable, he has good days and bad days, but even on his bad days he spends time with us.
he is a perfect and polite little man and i love him so much. i am so thankful that kata brought him into my life. he is the birthday boy.
