Re: Cotton

[Dudes]

Nina, Presto, Sherry: Cotton is acting like his zippy, happy little self!  He's such a cutie, his coat is shiny, soft and he's growing!  His eyes are bright and full of mischief, and he spends much of his days playing and following us so as not to miss anything.    He's doing so well right now, it's hard to think of him as terminal.  Presto, he's on Interferon and Lysine, but his lymph nodes remain enlarged.  In fact, lately they are a bit larger than they have been in spite of everything, and they are feeling hard in his neck.  His labs about 3 or so weeks ago were all normal, except a borderline high calcium, another indication that he might be dealing with lymphoma. The vet did give me a couple of options in order of aggresiveness: 1. Wait a couple of months to see how he is doing, re- xray and see how the sizes measure, check blood work again; 2. Ultrasound the abdomen; 3. Needle biopsy all enlarged organs and associated lymph nodes.   The vet is supposed to check with her senior partner and make a final recommendation and give me an estimate as to what this will cost.   I am a firm believer in treating the patient, and not the results of tests.  Cotton's overall attitude and health is my biggest indicator for treatment.  I guess my worry is that he will be in pain, and I don't want his last days full of vet visits, feeling bad and not being able to be his usual happy self.  I don't want to selfishly prolong his life if he is miserable.  However, everything I've read is encouraging, saying that cats usually respond to chemo very well.  So we could buy a little quality time with chemo if need be.  Any other thoughts would be appreciated. Sandy