It's amazing how well they can learn the difference between clothing and bare skin. When KD chases my hand around under the bedsheets, she extends her claws fully because she knows she can't hurt me (although sometimes her claws are a little bit long and she misjudges - YOWCH!). But when she uses my husband's hand as a chew/scratch toy, she never breaks the skin. She does the "Grab & Stretch" too, and never lets her claws out more than a fraction on bare skin (just to get my attention, yanno).
Great news - sending good thoughts that she keeps improving.
I completely agree with catbird about looking at invasive procedures from the cat's point of view. Sounds like you are tuned in to what's best for CJ's quality of life. I hope I can be that sensitive with KD.
There is no more enjoyable cat mess to clean up than food all over the floor around her dish, caused by the enthusiastic gobbling.
She has had only one out of litterbox pooping incident and no random vomiting in the last three weeks. (She still throws up occasionally from gagging on pills, but I don't count that.) She hasn't had Periactin in almost a week, and she's not needing the Pepcid at all.