Friday, November 06, 2009

Why Don't You Pick on Someone Your Own Size, 2009

Our cat has lymphoma.



The good news is that she has no symptoms yet, so she's not in any pain or discomfort as far as we can tell. Keeping my fingers crossed that we can find a way to pay for the chemo.

Between the pet deaths and illnesses, job losses and money troubles, I am SOOOO ready for 2009 to be over.


EDITED TO ADD:

The kind of lymphoma she has is aggressive. The prognosis without any treatment at all is 30 days, and it took us almost 3 weeks to get through enough tests etc. to end up at the oncologists. At the very last minute, my boss managed to come up with about 15% of the total amount of the invoices that they owe me, so I was at least able to pay for the first batch of tests and treatment which is a huge relief.

The most recent set of tests has determined that the cancer has shown up in her spleen, left kidney and several lymph nodes. So even though she doesn't have any symptoms except for the visible tumor, her condition was serious enough to put her life expectancy without treatment down to a matter of days, not months. With treatment she should have 9 months of healthy happy life before the cancer comes back, if she responds well to the chemo and her remission is typical.

She's always been a bit of a benevolent diva, treating us like a kitty concierge service. But in spite of her imperious demands still manages to be one of the sweetest and most loving cats I've ever met. Since she's only 8, another 9 months for her is a significant percentage of her total life, and completely worth it to us if we can get a chance to spoil her for another year before she starts feeling any pain.

Plus I already spent one Thanksgiving Day just a few years ago having to put down a pet who'd suddenly gone into seizures and then a coma from a newly-discovered series of unsuspected silent tumors... I'd prefer not to spend another Thanskgiving Day at the emergency vet having to make painful and difficult decisions.

4 Comments:

At 12:15 PM, November 06, 2009, Blogger Romance said...

I am so sorry.

I hope treatment goes well and sorry its been a tough 2009.

Your knitting is totally inspired though!

I have had two friends with successful kitty chemo outcomes.

Fingers crossed

 
At 1:02 PM, November 24, 2009, Blogger Calamity Jen said...

What a heart-wrenching situation. I'll be thinking of you.

 
At 1:49 AM, December 14, 2009, Blogger CrabSoda said...

My Cat Had Lymphoma too. Not all hope is lost. Even after several months of chemo she went into complete remission and lived for another 7 years. She just died a couple of months ago and it has pretty much sucked, but i got SO many extra years with her thanks to the treatment and care administered by my vet. Good luck, we love all kitties!

 
At 1:22 AM, December 16, 2009, Blogger panda said...

Thank you all for your so kind comments and loving thoughts.

CrabSoda, it's very uplifting to hear of your cat's successful treatment, and so sorry to hear of your recent loss. We lost our elderly dog this last summer and even though it was inevitable given her condition, it was still rough.

Our cat has responded far better to the initial treatment than her oncologist anticipated, so we're optimistic about her chances for a (fingers-crossed) lengthy remission. Because it had spread to so many places, he says we'd be lucky to get a year, but that cats are notoriously hard to make predictions about since so many cats won't put up with the treatments long enough reap the results. Getting a cat to sit still for a weekly half hour infusion can be impossible.

So the fact that our Princess is such a well mannered lady in spite of all the indignities bodes well.

Thanks again!
Panda

 

Post a Comment

<< Home