This is my update from last month. After I got Stan Lee home from the vet, he was very happy to be home. But quickly I discovered that it was not going to be easy to take care of him. It wasn't really difficult to water down his wet food and warm it up for him. I did not have to syringe feed him, but I did have to hold the plate up to his mouth at first for him to lap it up. I fed him about 4-5 times a day to make sure he was getting enough nutrition. I gave him his medication twice daily. He slept a lot. He liked lying on a heating pad. He walked around a little when he was awake and he was able to use the litter box. The hard part was just seeing how pitiful he was. There were many times that I thought to myself, "Why did we ok the surgery? His personality is never going to be the same."
I discovered a large knot on the back of his skull. I began to fear brain damage. I was constantly worrying over him because even when he improved physically, it seemed like he would never be quite himself again. He has always been an extremely affectionate cat toward me, but he wasn't any more. After that initial moment of joy when he got home, we didn't get much attention from him. The only thing that made him act happy was seeing our dog come into the room. The dog would walk in and Stan Lee would stand up and PURR. Then he would go over to the dog and rub himself against him. His progress seemed slow but it was always progress. He began to move around more and go find the water bowl to drink out of. At about 4 1/2 weeks post-surgery, he began jumping back to his usual position of daytime napping on the top bunk bed that belongs to my oldest son.
Finally, at exactly 5 weeks after the initial hit by the car, he came to me purring loudly and rubbing his face into mine. He was finally, FINALLY acting like the old Stan Lee. He still eats wet food, but I no longer water it down for him. I caught him eating dry dog food so I offered him some dry cat food. He turned his nose up at it, and he still happily munches on the big size dry dog food chunks every so often. He sure is going to look funny. His jaw is tilted and a bottom tooth sticks up. The matching bottom fang tooth that's supposed to be on the other side is gone--probably got knocked out at the car impact. But he looks beautiful to me. I know, 5 weeks doesn't seem like a long time. It was and it wasn't all at the same time. The vet staff says they can't believe he survived. He will remain an indoor cat for us. He still has the wire in his jaw, but I will be taking him back to the vet a week from tomorrow to check on it. They had said 6-8 weeks total time to have the wire in place. We will see. In the meantime, he will probably be in my lap.
(This was written by my daughter, Karen.)
