Mom is home; Joey is not doing so great...

Starting with the good news: My mom came home from the hospital yesterday.

The not-so-good news (copied and pasted from B's other journal):

Feline Hepatic Lipidosis. Joey's disease. Google it, I dare you. The internet is full of info. Tonight I googled variations of "feline tube feeding" to see how long it generally takes for cats to respond to the forced calories. Because our little guy is not doing well at all. Our poor little Joey.

He's been home since yesterday and is still struggling, even just to lift his little head. We feed him 4-5x a day, 15ml at a time through his feeding tube. He gets meds every 12 hours, also through the tube. After he eats he gets very uncomfortable and
lethargic. All he wants to do is sleep. He's not bathing himself either, which means J and I have been wiping him down with a warm washcloth every so often.The worst part is that he can't purr because of the tube down his throat. It is incredibly heartbreaking to hear him try.

The mortality rate for a cat in Joey's condition is high. We didn't notice a significant change in his health until it was nearly too late. Thank God we have an amazing vet who sprung into action immediately.

Right now he's asleep in his favorite spot downstairs, on top of one of the dog's blankets we have folded and stored. I am scared to let him sleep alone, and will probably bring him back upstairs before I go to bed.

I'll have to take a partial day tomorrow, and probably again throughout the week so that I can come home to check and feed him. I'll probably do quite a bit of working from home, if not going back to work in the evenings so that I can maintain my hours.
Hopefully I can work out an arrangement for the next couple of weeks or at least until he starts eating on his own again. Unfortunately because I live so far from my work, it's not as simple as taking a longer lunch. It takes me at least 45 minutes to drive to work, most of the time it takes an hour.

I knew the first few days home for him were going to be hard, but this is unbelievably difficult. He is not himself and I keep praying that we've made the right decision. Seeing him in this state - it's awful. I can't even describe it. The one animal we own who has the most spunk and love in his heart is the one hit with this awful, shiteous disease.