Pre and Post Surgery Long Story

I've sent you all emails so you should know that Hermione's tooth was not extracted like it was suppose to be. I promised you all a more detailed post and this is it.

On Tuesday, December 8th, I took Herm to her pre-surgery blood screening. My poor baby dealt with an assistant who was not all that great at holding down animals and it ended up with her being a bit bruised by several attempts to take out blood in both her chest and her right hind leg. Not a very good day for Ms. Hemione.

Here is the bill for that:

You will note that they charged me for a Feline Lukemia test even though I told them Hermione's negative :( Well obviously the test came back negative and I spoke with the Vet in charge to reduce the charges (which he did by discounting $10 off the test and reducing the extraction from $100 to $75.)

That same day I took the Antirobe (oral antibiotic) home and started giving it to Herm.

On Thursday, I got a call in the morning that the blood test were all clear and we could proceed with surgery. I took Herm in at 11am and consulted with the Vet. Signed waivers that pretty much said I give them permission to save my pet should something bad happen. I helped put her in a little cat cubby, paid the clerk and left her there :(

Bill paid at dropoff:

At 3:44pm, while I was visiting my mom at the hospital I got a call from the Vet's office. They told me that Hermione was out of surgery, that she's doing fine and I could pick her up after 5pm. When I got to the Vet at 5:30pm, I had to wait for several peeps who were picking up animals as well. When they finally called my name, I spoke to the Vet that handled Herm's procedure. He explained to me that they started administering gas and everything seemed ok. But that they were getting abnormal EKG readings. When they saw that, they stopped the gas immediately and checked on Herm. After checking her out, he decided that she was not fit to be under anesthesia and that because of that they could not do the extraction.

She was calm and groggy enough that they proceeded to scale and polish her teeth. He said that afterwards he took a good look at the shape of teeth and said that it was sound enough to wait for extraction. However, the infection was in the gums and had spread. He advised that I keep her on the antibiotics until it was done. I asked him if it was just a bad reaction to the gas that effected her heart or if it was due to her age. He told me that she definitely had a bad reaction to the gas but whether it was that or her age or the fact that she has an infection her body is trying to fight that caused the abnormal EKG readings he couldn't tell. He said it could be all three things taxing her body. It was his opinion that she may be too old for surgery of any kind, but that at this time we should focus on curing the infection. When that happens, I can bring her in for another EKG to see how her heart is doing.

Since they had to cancel the extraction, they issued a refund of :$182.50. (It's gonna take several days to post to my account they said.) I'm sorry if I offended anyone by asking if it was ok to keep this amount in the Hermione Fund, I know yall donated the money out of the goodness of your hearts, but I just didn't want to take it without consulting yall. (Please Please don't be offended)

Refund:

When I took her home that night she was definitely still groggy and kept stumbling and and dragging her self around like a drunk. It was kinda sad. She kept trying to climb up on my cabinets which is her fave place but she couldn't. After an hour she got to the top of the fridge and almost fell off. I decided to put her in her carrier until she was strong enough and lucid enough to not try dangerous climbing stunts.

Here are some videos:

Hermione home after procedure Thursday:



Friday afternoon Hermione was feeling better and very HUNGRY!:



Today Hermione getting her petting on (she is very like a dog):



This is her shinny tooth not looking so bad now:

Thank you all for your emails, I did get to read them and will answer. I've been dealing with Hermy and 2 family members with health problems so it was super hard to get a chance to sit down at a computer. Thank you for caring about Herm and helping her. You all rock!

About the Procedure

I went by my vets office to schedule the surgery. The office manager told me that my vet will not be the one performing the surgery, that it would be her boss (the owner of the animal hospital.) I told her I was cool with that. She then told me that since Herm is 9, the vet wouldn't perform the surgery without an EKG (which is an extra $50.) I was a bit upset at the last minute additional cost, but I want this done as soon as possible so I went ahead and scheduled everything. Plus with all yall's help, I did raise $520. I'll just get the most important vaccine and put the others on hold while she heals.

So as for when it all will go down:

The pre-surgery blood screening will be done Tuesday, Dec 6 at 12:45 and provided all looks well (which there is no reason I know of why it shouldn't,) Herm will undergo surgery on Thursday, Dec 8 at 11:30am.

Here is the final estimate:

Again, thank you all for helping my cat. I will definitely be keeping yall posted :)

WE DID IT!!!

In only 3 days, we've raised the funds we needed for Hermione's care!

I'm completely honored to have the friends I do. Yall really helped to get the word out. I'm also humbled by the kindness and generosity of the people who've donated.
My thanks and appreciation go out to each and every one of you!

At this moment I'm waiting to hear back from my vet so that we can schedule Hermione's surgery. And although the the fundraising is over, I will still be posting here and keeping yall updated on Hermione's care so please stay tuned!

Also, to those of you that came to this blog wanting to help my baby, I thank you but I'm no longer accepting monetary donations cause I've raised what I needed and I'm not a glutton. However if you live in or know people who live in the New York City area, perhaps you may consider helping a friend of mine.

My best friend recently became homeless due to a natural disaster in her area. During a storm, a tree fell on her house. Although her and her kitties weren't hurt, the house has been declared unfit to live in. I've been letting my friend stay with me, but her kitties (she has six) are in a temporary shelter. She's looking for a room she could rent to house the kitties while she finds a permanent place to live. I would take the kitties but they have a rare disease and cannot be near healthy cats. So obviously she's looking for a place that wouldn't have other cats there. If anyone knows of anything, please email me.

Thank you!

Tracking the Fundraising

Here is Hermione's fund donation meter cause I'm seriously not trying to get more than what I need to raise. I will definitely remove the donation button from my first post once I've reached my goal.

Provided byFundraising Ideas Center

Thank you in advance for your donations and word of mouth. :)

Wow I can't believe people starting responding so quickly! As I said I will be thanking donors in all sorts of ways. First, look below to see my thank you list, then go to my twitter page @paranoidsistah for tweeted thank yous and lastly, I'll be emailing every single one of you awesome people!

I want to thank the following people for being the first contributors to The Hermione Fund: Cindy Mui, Jazz & Will Robson from the UK and Elfriede Lakatos from Austria (wow Hermione is internationally loved and I'm so happy about it!)

To all the donors, YALL ROCK!!! I give much thanks to the following peeps for being so kind to give: Sarah Durling, Anonymous, H. Foster, Sonia Bovio, Catherine Smith, Virgie Billet, Heidi Elliot, Anonymous 2, Beatrice Berendonk, Katie Doyle, Trea MacPherson, Kerry Ann Mormello, Lisa Lamberg and Jennifer Woolley.

I also want to send a special thanks to my many peeps who have been putting the word out on the street. Like I said before giving is great, but if you're not able to, please know that spreading the news is just as great cause that makes you Hermione's fundraisers. I love all yall!

Welcome to The Hermione Fund!

Hi All,

My name is Sandra and I have a 9 year old Siamese cross named Hermione. I've had her since she was a month old. She was thrown away, left on the streets of Greenpoint, Brooklyn in the middle of a snow storm in December. My friend with a great big heart saved her. I adopted her the following February.

Here she is playing with my cell phone charm (the background for this blog is also a pic of her):

I created this blog for her.  Mainly, because I'm too poor to afford her vet costs and I need help so that I don't lose her.

Why does she need help? Hermione has bad teeth.  No matter how much I take care of them (and my current vet thinks I've done well since her last visit,) many of her teeth are rotting and a canine is infected.  She needs dental surgery and I can't afford that.  I've been unemployed for over a year.  And while I've been job searching and doing community organizing around local economic development, I've been struggling.  My unemployment benefits only cover my rent and utilities.  And though I'm blessed to have family that helps with Hermione's food and litter costs, vet costs are too much (and I don't come from a rich family.)

Through my saving change and dollars, I managed to get Hermione a vet visit, antibiotics for an ear infection and her Rabies vaccine.  But that took me over 10 months to manage and total $75.  The estimated costs for her Dental surgery is $457.  It doesn't seem like a lot, but it is for me.  I know many people will read this and be skeptical about whether or not I'm conning them or will use the money for myself instead of Hermy.  So I will tell you this: I am a cat lover who would never abandoned my cat even while I'm suffering from financial hardship.  I have taken great care of Hermione and I don't want something as simply treatable as a tooth infection to take her away from me.  So even if I have to beg on the internet, I will. She's worth it!

This is her infected canine:

The pics are blurry but you can tell how bad the tooth and gums are. :(

So, since I believe in full disclosure, here is the estimate bill for her Dental surgery with a business card for my vet, who has been given permission, by me, to give out info on Hermione's needs:

Although my estimate is valid till March 15, 2012, I'm not sure how bad the tooth will get and how infected it will become.  I know I will probably need to get some antibiotics soon (which will be $20) till I can raise the money for the surgery and I need to get the rest of her vaccinations (which are $32.)  I know how it is to be poor and not able to help as much as you'd like so know that I will accept any amount. All I need to raise is a $509 ($457 for dental surgery, $20 for antibiotics while I'm waiting to raise this amount, and $32 for vaccinations so that she'll be set till next year.)

 And whether you can give or not, please let your friends, family and followers now about this by sharing it through email and social media.

Thank you,
Sandra and Hermione

To donate click the button below: