Michelle,
I have dealt with enough cancer in humans and dogs to know there are not
guarantees....but I always try to stay as positive as I can given any
circumstances. I do have my down times and also try to be realistic.
My goal for Asia is to give her the best life she can have for the longest she
can have it, whatever it may be.....I am just mostly happy at this stage that I
thought it through and did some research before euthanizing and that we can do
some treatments to assist her have some quality of life.
I have done doggie hospice with 3 dogs since 2003, 2 of them last year and one
was a cancerous tumor on his spine at C2 and one was Chronic Renal Failure that
we treated for 2 yrs. these two were brothers and I had them since birth. I
also had there mother and she had liver disease which I also treated for 2 yrs.
along with heart disease. My cat that I had for 15 yrs was a diabetic the last
5 yrs. of her life and I gave her shots am and pm daily.
Not that I want to do anymore hospice with any living thing but I have had the
experience with dogs and also my father. My husband also had cancer and fought
it for 2 yrs. My mother is a 4 time cancer survivor who is now 82 and going
strong.
I appreciate you wanting me to be informed and appreciate your honesty about
the disease. I do lots of research on the diseases of my animals and my human
family members and try to stay as informed as possible. I am also still
grieving last years numerous deaths in my family so it was very difficult to
euthanize Asia and it was also very difficult to face the possible caretaking
again, but after a couple days of consideration and being sad, my decision was
made to go forward with another opinion and treatment.
So that is where I am with this, I will treat her as long as it is helping her,
if she no longer has a quality of life then I will give her the loving peace of
heaven.
Thanks,
Dianne
----- Original Message -----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To: felvtalk@felineleukemia.org
Sent: Sunday, November 26, 2006 4:36 PM
Subject: Re: Dr. Ward's consult
It is curable in humans because they use more chemo, I think. I have heard of
dogs being cured, and I have heard of cats years out, who could be called
cured. It just is not very common with cats, and even less common with
positives because their remissions are shorter. In positives, it is their
compromised immune system that fosters the lymphoma-- FeLV+ cats are 600 times
more likely to get lymphoma than negatives. I think that the remissions must
be shorter because the FeLV that made the cat susceptible to lymphoma in the
first place is still there and brings it back.
I am sorry if I took hope away from you. I struggled with whether or not to
say anything, because you seem so happy about her progress. But I think you
should be happy about her progress, but just know that her time is probably
limited, though hopefully not too limited. I think that it is reasonable to
hope for a good 6 months to a year, and to hope for even more while knowing it
may not happen. I did not want you to be shocked if she comes out of remission
in a few months. Remember, though, that there are other drugs to try if/when
she does, which can give her more time.
Michelle
In a message dated 11/26/2006 11:12:17 A.M. Eastern Standard Time, [EMAIL
PROTECTED] writes:
no, I guess I did not know it was not curable. My mom had lymphoma and
hers has been in remission since 1999.
I have been reading about the various lengths of remission but did not
really realize it was not curable.
Dianne
