Jordy Update (Wed 5th Nov 2008)

Well I was meant to take Jordy to the Vet (who was visiting town today) but I ended up rushing him into the Vet 45mins away yesterday after a sleepless night with him on Monday. I have him home with me again, he stayed in there over night because he had eaten Monday morning and they didn’t want to put him under on the day because of that. Sunday night while I was petting him in the quiet in bed, I could hear strange noises coming from his head. At first I thought it was the sound of static, but it wasn’t making the noise when I stroked his back, so I listened closer and a huge fear struck me. It sounded as if the skin on his head was dead and was crinkling as I petted him. I panicked!!! I thought that the Operation months ago had failed and that the blood supply to his skin there had stopped and I also linked the blood from his eye to that.

The vet assured me that his skin was fine. She suggested it might have been trapped air under the skin. Although she explained something to me that I didn’t understand before now properly….. Jordy isn’t cured of cancer. :( As a matter of fact it is just going to get worse for him and what I am doing is just prolonging his life (and therefore maybe also … his pain) :( The cancer he has on his eyelid is not curable … just treatable. I can keep taking him to have bits and pieces of it frozen off … but it will get worse and worse and his pain will continue to get worse also. I am not sure now if I should be continuing to keep the treatment up or not :( This visit alone cost me just under $400. It’s money I don’t have as I am still paying off his Operation, with the help and support and love of those who have contributed to the Jordy fund thus far.

Sadly now I (and all of you who have followed his story) will need to figure out when the time has come to let Jordy be free. It’s not something I want to think about right now, but it is something that will happen in the next few months and this is so hard for me right now. I would like to thank you all for your compassion and love, following Jordy's story and letting him into your hearts. I know my love for Jordy is shared by so many of you and it helps so much. I am so sorry this update isn’t as happy as I would have liked it to have been. He is still here and he is happy and comfortable. And I love him VERY much … we all do!!!

The Jordy Fund at Red Bubble

Well most of you would know I received some bad news about Jordy last week. If you haven’t read about it, you can here

My Vet also suggested she could give me a referral the the Murdoch University Cancer Care unit for Animals in Perth, if I wanted to see what sort or treatment etc was available for Jordy if I wanted to go down that road as well. I couldn’t not use the referral and have Jordy get worse and put to sleep soon … and always wonder if maybe I could have done more to help. I am sooooooo glad I took him to Perth today!!! I left him there for an hour while the surgeons looked over him and they gave me three options.

1. Leave him be to let the cancer spread to his lungs shortly and just give him a good quality of life until such time that the pain was too much and have him put to sleep (this option was the only hope the Vet had given me!!!)
2. Scrape his tumor and do a course of Chemo to shrink and slow the growth and spread … and monitor him with subsequent checkups and then give him a few extra months before having to make the decision.
3. Remove his eye and the surrounding tissue, check the nasal cavity and use skin from his head to patch the eye and he would almost certainly be free of the cancer (if it hasn’t spread yet) and could live another 2 years or more until he died of old age.

So I am opting for number three of the above … but this is where I want to ask you all a big favour.

The operation is going to cost me $3000, money I don’t have right now. The operation also needs to be done as soon as possible!!! The longer it is left, the more likely the cancer has spread and the chances of this operation working become less.

What I want to ask you all (beg even) is that you support me in giving Jordy the chance to live and die in a few years of natural causes, rather than in about three months if I do nothing … buy buying my work here at Red Bubble. For every cent of Profit I make from today I will be putting in a Fund especially for Jordy’s Operation and I will start a new Journal Entry at Red Bubble called The Jordy Fund where on request, I will paste the product bought, who bought it and how much profit (with a running total) has gone towards Jordy’s Operation. Normally I would save and plan when I needed money for something, but this is very important for me to do ASAP and so your help would be greatly appreciated. And it doesn’t matter if you just buy a card … or a Full sized Framed Print. It ALL means something to me. I appreciate your help so much and so does Jordy.