A couple people have mentioned that they missed Sami updates, so I thought I'd just put it all in one place.

Friday: Sami was vomiting liquid.  She eats too fast a lot, so I didn't think much of it at first.  But Friday night I stayed up with her all night since she was vomiting every few hours and just not acting like she was feeling well.

Saturday:  Took Sami into the vet Saturday morning.  They said she was a little dehydrated, so they gave her some fluids.  They did a blood test just to make sure something more serious wasn't going on (especially looking at kidney function because of the pet food recall), but the blood test looked good.  They assumed she had the kitty stomach flu, gave her an anti-nausea injection and antibiotic injection, sent pills for anti-nausea and antibiotics home with us, gave us some feeding instructions, and said to let them know if she doesn't get better.  There were no changes when we brought her home on Saturday, and I stayed up with her again Saturday night.

Sunday: Sami's still not better.  She's putting up one heck of a fight whenever we try to give her the pills, she's still vomiting every few hours, and she won't eat or drink anything.  I stay up with her Sunday night again, and start timing between the times she vomits.

Monday: Took Sami back to the vet at 10am.  The vet (by this time, I'll call her by name, Dr. Pinkerton) wants to keep her to give her fluids by IV.  Before I leave she does FIV and FeLV tests just to make sure, and they come out negative.  She also took an xray, and it looks like Sami hasn't pooped, even though she hasn't eaten in days.  Dr. Pinkerton decides to give her barium and take some xrays during the day to see if she has a blockage in her GI tract.  I go home and stew in my worry. 

At noon, Dr. Pinkerton calls just to give me an update.  It looks like the barium has reached a certain point and not moved.  She said she'll give it another couple hours to see if it moves.

At 2, Dr. Pinkerton calls again.  She says the barium hasn't moved, and there's definately something blocking Sami up.  She figures it's either a foreign object (but Sami doesn't really eat non-edible stuff, so I'm doubtful), or her intestine has folded over on itself.  (She's hoping for the first, since the 2nd will mean cutting that portion of Sami's intestine out.)  The only option at this point is to do surgery to remove the blockage.  I tell her to go ahead.

At 4:30, Dr. Pinkerton calls again.  Sami has come out of surgery fine.  She found some especially dried fecal matter in Sami's intestine that wouldn't let anything pass, which is better than the other two problems she thought it might have been.  She's never seen fecal matter dry up and compact to the point that an animal can't pass it before, but she took a look around the rest of Sami's GI tract and can't find anything else wrong.  Because of the pet food recall, she also looked at her kidneys while she was in there, and Sami's kidneys looked very healthy.  Sami can come home.

Tuesday: Sami's feeling slightly better, but is still not herself.  She's not eating or drinking.  Dr. Pinkerton calls in the morning to check on her right after we gave her the pills, and while we're on the phone, Sami vomits.  Since that's the first time in 22 hours, the vet says to stop giving her the pills (to my relief) and just give her the pain meds, and wait to try to feed her anything, just get her to drink water.  During the morning, Sami doesn't vomit again, but she's still not active and she still won't drink anything.  Dr. Pinkerton calls again around noon to check on her, and says that it's okay to give Sami water using the needleless syringe.  I gave her a little bit of water each hour, offering it to her to drink herself first, then hand feeding it to her.  Also, Sami still hasn't gone to the litter box or moved from her spot.  Dr. Pinkerton calls again that evening to check on her, and says to give her more water and see if we can get her to eat anything, and to bring her in first thing Wednesday morning.

Wednesday: Took Sami back to the vet.  Dr. Pinkerton wants to keep her there to monitor her and give her more fluids.  They get her to eat and drink on her own, and Sami is starting to act like herself again, trying to get out of the cage and hissing at her only neighbor, a dog.  Wednesday night, Dr. Pinkerton feels like Sami is on the mend and can come home.

Thursday: Sami gets gradually better throughout the day.  The vet's office calls just to check up on her.  She'll eat a tiny bit of food, and she's become more active.  She's back to wanting to be on the same level of the house as we are.  She purrs again when we pet her, and even wants to be picked up. 

Friday (today):  Sami is feeling much better.  She's following us around and eating a tiny bit of food at a time.  She's obviously still unsure about food, and still in a little bit of pain, but she'd rather sleep it off than take the pain meds.  I can't say I blame her, so I'm only giving her the pain meds if she's acting like she needs them (she's a lot like me in that way, I'd rather be in pain than be drugged up).  Right now, she's sleeping peacefully on the bed.