sssigh. I guess evfurry happy ending hassta haff a battle befur yoo get there. Yoo'd fink mine trip inna bottom of mom's car would've been mine. But appurrently not. It seems I haff an evfun bigger challenge to ovfurcome now. Mom furrst noticed I had a frowny face (sort of a furrowed brow look, she says) on Noo Yeer's Eve but when she went back and looked a photos, she found this one from December 17, 2002 that shows thuh abscess was there fur a couple of weeks befur she actually saw it. She feels rilly bad about that.

Anyway, she noticed mine furrowed brow on Noo Yeer's Eve so she scooped me up and hauled me in to TED's. I din't hate TED's office so much back then. I was young and clooless at thuh time. TED Scott stuck a needle in mine head and drained thuh abscess and sent mom and me home wif Aunti Biotik (fur me, not her) and told her that if it came back, she should bring me back. sigh. It came back. That furry day. But TED's office was closed and thuh next day was a holiday so she waited till thuh day after Noo Yeer's to take me back. That time they did surgery on mine nose. (Well, actually, it's above mine nose, but that's as good a description as any, I guess.) And I continued mine course of Aunti Biotiks. But, that purrticular Aunti Biotik didn't seem to work furry well, because thuh bump came back rilly soon. Mom and I haff furgotten all thuh dates when we went back fur more surgery, but we rememfur Valentine's Day was one of 'em. I had surgery in January and February and March and April and July. And I've been close and purrsonal frenz with Aunti Biotik fur most of that time. Evfurry time I stopped thuh Aunti Biotik, within 2 weeks, mine abscess came back.

Here's a photo of me after my July 2003 surgery. Back in about February or March, they discovered mine infection had turned into osteomyelitis. That's a rilly big word that means thuh infection is in mine bone. At the time, they did cultures and biopsies and the only buggie that turned up was staph (Staphylococcus aureus) that would respond to any old Aunti Biotik. But, still, the infection has kept on eating at mine bone. It's eaten through and into mine frontal sinus. Mom says she doesn't know why come I don't haff a major sinus headache but I rilly haffn't. Anyway, this last surgery was furry eggstensive because TED had to clean out all thuh dead bone. They did more cultures and biopsies and they still came back as just plain ole staph that responds to anyfing. By this time, mom's started to get a little frustrated wif trying to get this under control - we've been fighting this fur 7 months. And I've developed a troo hatred fur going to TED's. One time they had to take mine carrier apart to get me out! heh heh heh I fink they're scared of me. Then, this last time, TED thought he could outsmart me wif thuh drain he stuck in mine nose. Thuh last time he tried a drain back in March, I yanked it out thuh furry furrst time mom tried to inject that nasty cold medicine through it into mine nose. So this time, he cut a hole in thuh back of mine head and ran thuh drain under mine skin down to mine nose and he stitched thuh drain down on mine head in a swirly pattern so thuh access port thingy was draped ovfur mine ear. And mom got one dose of medicine in it! Then she let me go and I ranranran and paw and scratched at thuh thing till I got it loose! It wuz awful! But...sigh... thuh end result of that wuz that I ended up back at TED's and this time I had to spend a week there. They put one of those %^&*! collars on me and they sewed it down!

Meanwhile, mom started asking about a consult to thuh TED school here in Oklahoma and she evfun called thuh Consult a Kitty Doctor service at Cornell Universary. Thuh procedure Cornell recommended was thuh furry one TED Scott did. And thuh TED's at thuh vet school in Oklahoma din't rilly have lots of other suggestions beyond whut we've already done. Other than they mentioned doing tests fur a fungus. To do that, TED would've had to open up mine wound again and evfun if thuh culture came back negative, we wouldn't know that that was reel and troo because sometimes there are false negative results. And thuh results take sevfural weeks and mom din't want to wait that long to treat. Sooo....they decided we'd give Aunti Fungal a try. Thuh furrst one we tried wuz awful! It made me sick and I din't wanna eat or play or do anyfing atall. On that, following a week at TED's, mine weight dropped from 11 pounds to about 9.5 and mom was worried. So she went looking fur an alternative Aunti Fungal fur me and found one! I'm taking itraconazole now and it's muchmuch betterer! She hasta get it at thuh hoomin pharmacy and it's not cheap but it duzzent make me sick like thuh ketaconazole did. So that's a good fing. We don't know yet if this is gonna do thuh trick. So far, I've been off thuh Aunti Biotik fur coming on two weeks now and that's thuh magic time fur a repeat appearance of thuh infection. But I'm still on thuh Aunti Fungal and will be fur awhile if it continues to seem to work. If it duzzent, then I'm off to thuh TED school (ssigh). A side effect of all this surgery is that I've had to learn how to drink water again! Fur some reason, when I wud try to lap mine water from a bowl, it would go up mine nose and make me sneezesnort. So I had to learn to take liddle bitty laps then raise mine head to swallow befur lowering mine head fur another liddlebitty lap. Or, I could just go drink from thuh stream in thuh fountain in thuh other room. Anyway, that's about where fings stand right now, as of thuh end of August, 2003. This last picture was taken last week - I think I'm looking pretty normal, all fings considered.

Yoo can find more pictures of me and mine nose, along with a bit more of mine story in thuh Gallery in thuh Jack's Nose album.