Guliko Update

Well, it turns out this wasn't actually a case of Overprotective Mommy Syndrome (OPMS).  Guliko felt better on Saturday after seeing the vet and for most of the day on Sunday, but Sunday evening, she had another one of her spells.  And another one.  These suckers are really scary and look a lot like she's having terrible muscle spasms all on her right side.  The muscles all lock up and stay that way for maybe 30 seconds or a minute, then relax so she can go bounding away.  And they clearly hurt a lot, if her yowling and attempts to stay perfectly still between them are any indication.  She had another one at around 6 am Monday morning (scared the crap out of me and the girlfriend because she had it on the girlfriend's pillow when we were both fast asleep).  She had several more throughout the day and clearly was in a lot of pain, so the girlfriend called the vet (her usual vet) and made an appointment for this morning.
We thought about driving her to a 24 hour vet last night because it seemed like she really couldn't get up after one of the attacks, but then she jumped up and moved into the back of the closet.  At this point, we were really thinking she was going to die just right there, but she didn't.  She got up in the night to use the litter box and eat and then jumped up on a chair this morning, so we were feeling a little more optimistic on the way to the appointment, even though she had a couple more seizures before we went. 
The vet thought at first that she had some sort of back injury and was getting ready to take some x-rays when Guliko had a seizure right there on the exam table.  The vet said "I've never seen a cat do that before".  Then she decided to check Guliko's ear.  Now, when the girlfriend first rescued Guliko from the streets, she was having some ear trouble and she took her to the vet and found out that the cat had a giant polyp in her middle ear.  The vet removed it, but warned that it was possible that she had some of the polyp in her inner ear, which would require surgery.  So she was checking the ear to make sure that they polyp hadn't grown back.  She couldn't tell--Guliko has a HUGE amount of ear wax, apparently--but when her assistant was holding Guliko's head so she could look in the ears, she noted a hard growth on Guliko's neck.  And when the vet pressed on it, Guliko had a seizure.  The vet needed to run some tests.
The upshot is, it's an inflamed lymph node, probably as a result of the ear not draining properly because of the polyp in the inner ear.  The lymph node is pressing on one of the major nerves in Guliko's neck.  The cat is going to have to have surgery to remove the polyp and maybe the lymph node.  The vet can't do the surgery, so she's looking into where we can take her.  Meanwhile, the cat is all drugged up, which would be funny if she wasn't so pitiful.  Poor kitty.