Re: Spencer and irony

[Lernermichelle]

Nina, I would almost bet my life that it is lymphoma, not leukemia. It is so much more common, and so much more likely to be in multiple places like that.  chemo is not very successful with leukemia, while it is with lymphoma. If you had someone to work with you, I would push for trying some lymphoma chemo protocol and seeing if it helps. If they could see something on ultrasound, try Elspar, and re-ultrasound to see if the elspar shrunk it, that would be another way to see if it is lymphoma.  but i don't think your vet is going to agree.   cats with lymphoma can sometimes go a few months comfortably on high doses of steroids.  You can never know what chemo would do. It is possible it would give him more time, but it is also possible that in the end it would not give more time than the dex. If you have decided to just stay with the dex, I understand.  I want to shoot your vet, though.  Because I do not think there is much point to more testing -- not only because I think it is lymphoma but because other forms of cancer would not be very treatable anyway so might as well just see if the lymphoma protocol helps-- and think she is just trying to cover her own ass and play things by the book.  But I am not a vet, so I can just rail against the establishment but can not be of any more help, unfortunately.  It is times like this I wish I had gone to vet school.  I could never handle it, though.   Know that if he gets bad, you can up the dose of dex.    I hope he has lots of good days left.   Michelle    In a message dated 9/14/2006 1:55:35 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: Hey Michelle, Yes Spencer is anemic.  Yes, he had fluid build up in his chest.  Yes, they suspect two masses, one of them in or near his GI tract.  Yes, they are concerned about problems with his heart.  All my what ifs and guesses about what tests might be run are just that: guesses.  The vet won't tell me what she proposes until I go in there.  I intend to cancel my appointment with her and let her know how disappointed I am that she thinks it best to not discuss any of this over the phone.  Her unwillingness to do so has sent my imagination spiraling to worst case scenarios and put me through torture trying to make up my mind with very limited information.  Maybe all that frustration was necessary to bring me to the conclusions that I'm finally arriving at, (see my last post).  I've always relied on medical intervention, but depended more on my instincts and intuition.  Right now I'm feeling peaceful with the decision to allow Spencer to comfortably live the time he has left with as little intervention as possible, (however much time that turns out to be). N