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Nina, so glad he is feeling better! As to the question about giving dex
indefinitely, I guess the answer is "it depends how long indefinitely is." He
should not have any short-term side effects from it. If he is on it for months
getting them every day, he can get steroid side effects-- diabetes or suppressed
immune system or think skin, etc. But I don't think the vet thinks he has
months, and he probably does not if dex is all he is getting, so I would not
worry about side effects at this point. I personally would want to do depo and
supplement it with occasional dex shots instead, but i would not worry about
giving too much dex right now. Cats can handle a lot, especially short-term, and
dex makes them feel so much better.
Does he get very stressed by vet visits, and is that the main reason you do
not want to do chemo with him? or cost? If the dex is helping, I think
that chemo would help more, especially combined with steroids. If you can
afford the Elspar, I would at least do that. Combined with the dex it might
really help him feel better and increase his life by a few weeks or more with
good quality, and it is not stressful because it is just one sub-q shot and has
no side effects. But doing the COP or Wisconsin chemo protocol would be
likely to help a lot more. If Elspar is that much money, then I think it
is the most expensive of the chemo agents that they use for feline lymphoma. One
of them, perhaps Vincristine (usually given after Elspar), was under $10, I
think. They usually give Elspar first, though, for some reason. I
think it has to do with not killing off the lymphoma cells too quickly, because
doing that can cause toxic overload to their body. I think Elspar kills
only a limited number of the cells at one time because it just stops them from
reproducing and then they die off naturally, rather than the drug killing the
cells. I think the others actually kill the cells perhaps, so you want the tumor
smaller when you give them so as not to overload the body. I could be talking
out my ear, though, as I am straining to remember. Anyway, I would do the
Elspar if you can afford it because it is not a stress (unless you have to take
him in for it and that itself stresses him) and if he responds well I would try
the next week of one of the protocols as well (usually Vincristine, I think,
which is just two pills that you give him one time, a week after the Elspar
shot). The chemo is generally once a week for a month and then a break of
several weeks (I think it's a sub-q shot the first week, then IV shot the next
week, then one time pills the next week, then an IV shot the fourth week
and then nothing for 2 or 3 weeks after that). They have to check white
blood cell counts before each treatment after the second one. It was
not stressful for Simon, but he did not mind car rides. The only
side reaction he had to the chemo itself (unless his hemolytic anemia was a
response to it) was that he threw up and then did not want to eat one evening 2
or 3 days after getting the pill one. The others did not seem to bother him at
all, and he felt a lot better with them working on him. And his lymphoma was in
his liver and bone marrow, which is much harder to treat than mediastinal
lymphoma, which is what Spencer has.
Anyway, we all have opinions about chemo, and you know that I am generally
in favor of trying it with lymphoma, because it sometimes can actually put them
into remission for long periods. Remissions tend to be shorter for
positive cats, but there was at least one person on the lymphoma list with a
positive who was still in remission over a year after beginning chemo, and I
talked to someone else who had a positive live a year with chemo. I do
understand not doing it, too, though it is not how I would approach lymphoma. I
have decided not to treat other cancers with chemo because the remission rate is
so much smaller with some cancers, and the balancing made me decide to try
experimental or natural treatments instead. So I am not completely pro-chemo all
the time. I have just been really overwhelmed by the chemo success stories
on the lymphoma list serve, and I was amazed at how much better it made Simon
feel, bringing him from death's door and needing transfusions to literally
climbing the walls and running around in the ceiling and deviling Quincy.
Though Simon only lasted 2 months on it, he died from having a hemolytic
reaction rather than from the lymphoma itself, which was still at bay when he
died, and he lived two months when he would have lived only a few days without
it. By the end it was expensive, though probably because of transfusions and
hospitalization rather than the chemo, but doing the whole procedure is
definitely not cheap. And I know the extreme amounts you have spent already and
that money can not be squeezed from stones. So I am not implying it can. I just
really want you to know that, if you think the dex is helping, chemo could help
more.
Bless you for helping him, whatever you do,
Michelle
In a message dated 9/9/2006 1:06:46 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
>Hi All, |
- Re: Spencer is feeling better! Marylyn
- Re: Spencer is feeling better! Nina
- Re: Spencer is feeling better! Nina
- Re: Spencer is feeling better! Lernermichelle
