Moki's neurologist called us last night, and we where able to discuss with him our concerns about the comparsion to Cerebellar Hypoplasia. Apparently the fact that Moki was once able to walk, run and jump like a normal cat, was not taken into consideration when they drew the comparision between Moki's MRI findings and Cerebellar Hypoplasia. I am not sure if that little bit of information wasn't written down in his medical file, either by his neurologist, or the doctor at UC Davis which orginally seen him and referred us to the neurologist, or if they just missed that bit of information, before drawing the Cerebellar Hypoplasia connection. In any event (it's important to keep in mind that UC Davis is a teaching hospital, so students are still learning, and sometimes these kinds of things, will and do happen...) after pointing our this little bit of information, Moki's neurologist completely agrees that there is no way Moki's condition could have been caused by Cerebellar Hypoplasia, so we are back to square one, or should I say square two...
Moki was not given his normal course of antibiotics during his stay at UC Davis. When we picked up Moki from UC Davis and checked out the neurologist told us that he believed Moki's cough was most likely a result of the problem going on with his thoracic inlet. If the cough was indeed caused by the thoracic inlet problem, then Moki's neurologist stated that the antibiotics, should in effect do nothing to treat the cough other than maybe help out with Moki's congestion. Since Moki had been off the antibiotics for three days already, we decided to discontinue the antibiotics after we picked him up from UC Davis. By Saturday, the blood in Moki's urine had returned, he had congestion built up in his chest, and he was pretty much lethargic, wanting to do nothing other than sleep. This being the case, we put Moki back on the antibiotics Saturday afternoon/evening, and by Sunday he was starting to show signs of improvement. He was alert and playful. More like his normal self. Moki has been back on the antibiotics since Sunday and the congestion is starting to sound a little better. It will most likely take a few more days before the UTI clears up again, but we have faith in the fact that it will, since it always has in the past. After sharing all this with Moki's neurologist he is now stumped. The way that Moki responds while both on and off antibiotics, makes it appear as though whatever is going on is the result of some sort of infectious agent, but nothing showed up on the CSF Tap, which leaves us pretty much at this time baffled. Moki's neurologist is thus going to present these facts to someone higher up and see if maybe they can draw any conclusions, or give us any possible ideas as to what may actually be going on.
As for the orthopedic problem, Moki's neurologist did get ahold of one orthopedic surgeon, who felt that Moki's particular case should be examined/reviewed, by someone a little higher up, who has more experience than her. So now Moki's neurologist is trying to get in touch with this second orthopedic surgeon to have Moki's orthopedic case reviewed by them. Moki's neurologist is going to try to do all this before tomorrow evening and get back to us then. Unfortunately, if Moki's neurologist isn't able to track everyone down before then, we will have to wait two weeks to hear any additional news, since Moki's neurologist will be out of town the next two weeks for a conference.
The good news is that we did get the go ahead to continue physical therapy/water therapy with Moki, so he will be going to his next physical therapy appointment this Saturday as planned. We took last week off from physical therapy because we didn't want to over whelm Moki by doing to much in one week, i.e., MRI, CSF Tap and physical therapy. We where a little afraid that we might have to stop the physical therapy as a result of the thoracic inlet problem, but as of right now, we are being told it is ok to continue with the PT.
So with all that said, we are officially back to square one, or should I say square two. We do know a little bit more than we did before the MRI and CSF Tap, and the tests did actually make us aware that there is a problem with Moki's thoracic inlet, we still just don't know however whats behind it all. Well thats it for now. We'll continue to keep you posted as we learn more...
In other news:
Deb and ML are holding a wonderful "Blissful Bean Bag Raffle," to help raise money for Moki's ongoing medical costs. The funds for this raffle will go towards benefiting Moki's orthopedic procedures, of which we hope to bring you more news soon. Raffle tickets are only $2.00 and can be purchased directly using the paypal button on our left hand side bar. For more information about the raffle, and to see what you may win, simply click the "Blissful Bean Bag Raffle," link above. Thanks everyone.