Max sick again

Max woke us up a 5AM crying. He seemed to be in pain. Max is a vocal animal and when he yells, he is usually just saying "hey hey". This sounded different. He was struggling to go to the bathroom.
We got up and took him to the animal hospital. He had a blocked bowel. This is not the first time. The doctor gave him something to relax him and managed to take out a few large clumps of very hard stool that was blocking him.
Max is now a little doped up, but he is relaxing. His thyroid reading is back up and his liver stats are bad. The infection in his bowel must have backed up into the liver again.
We have to watch him and double his antibiotics. He is out of any immediate danger, but this is chronic and we will have to treat him for the rest of his life.
Max went up to hide in the attic. I have to go up and check how he's doing. I'd rather he stay down with us and sit on the couch where we can watch him.
Max cost us $400 for off hours emergency room treatment. The vet just called about the blood work. He his very high liver stats and a low? white cell count. We have to get him some super antibiotics and I'll have to take off from work monday to take him in to see his regular doctor. More money.
The doctor would not rule out cancer, but he had a very intense checkup the last time this happened and there was no indication then.