I lost my Romeo to lymphoma last year. For him, there weren't too many options. I had brought him in as an adult stray who I'd been feeding outside for a couple of years and though he had several wonderful years inside, he would absolutely freak if you tried to pick him up or hold him down in any way. He loved getting brushed, being petted, sitting on your lap or on your chest as you were trying to get to sleep but it had to be on his terms. The rigors of what was at best a chancy treatment would have been impossible for him--he would have become so frightened and stressed & I just couldn't put him through that. Thing is, he knew--and he had this look in his face that told me he was ready to go. He was struggling to breathe, hardly ate, seemed very uncomfortable and looked to me to end his suffering.
Spanky will let you know--when he's ready, he'll have that look in his eyes and you will instantly understand what he's saying. -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Stacy Zacher Sent: Thursday, December 02, 2010 11:31 AM To: [email protected] Subject: [Felvtalk] Spanky has large cell lymphoma Hi everyone: (cross posting on the lists we belong to). Just a follow-up to the biopsy and post yesterday. I want to thank everyone for all the help and support during this time. It means more than you know. The vet called last night and the pathologist's analysis confirmed what she initially thought - Spanky has large cell lymphoma or she called it lymphoblastic. She thought his blood results weren't bad for his status. She talked to the oncologist about his case also and the onc. wants to see him tomorrow morning to discuss chemo options since I want to try to treat this/ buy him some more time. I know the aggressive chemo protocol is more the IV chemo plus pill but I'm wary of doing that to his body right now. I would really appreciate thoughts on types of chemo for this type of lymphoma - large cell lymphoma for his mediastinal cranial mass (maybe about 2cm now instead of 2.5cm when we started prednisolone). He's not eating as well as he should either and steadily losing weight even though he seems to eat overnight well and I syringe food him too. We didn't test the cells to see if they T or B cells. The vet said it varies but they normally follow the UW Madison protocol for treating this type - Cyclophosphamide, prednisolone and the vincristine. I want him to have quality of life over suffering bad side effects. I know someone wrote that the lymphoma makes them sicker than chemo so I'm keeping that in mind as well. We discussed vincristine iv or pill form or doing IV+pill. I'm just worried about aggressive treatment since he's losing weight, weaker, FELV+, early HCM, and is not young strong kitty. He's aged about 10 years in 1 year it seems! So much to consider and so confusing! Please send us healing thoughts any any advice you can before our appt tomorrow morning. I found an interesting chart on the various protocols from a vet site but am not sure if I can post the link? Purrs, Stacy and Spanky Re: Spanky - blood test/ultrasound - patiently waiting for biopsy re Posted by: "stacy_zacher" [email protected] stacy_zacher Wed Dec 1, 2010 3:17 pm (PST) (cross posting on the lists we belong to). Thanks to everyone for all the purrayers and sending healing thoughts for Spanky. I'm still waiting for the vet to get his biopsy results back and call me. She said it could be today or tomorrow. We got there at 9:30am yesterday, they did a blood panel, quick ultrasound to see if the mass was still there. It was :-(. Regarding his blood test results - everything except his WBC and related counts were normal last time (about a month ago). This time his liver values are elevated slightly AST is 55 (range 14-54), ALT is 147 (range 26-128)(from pred?), wbc is up from 2400 to 6(from pred?), _______________________________________________ Felvtalk mailing list [email protected] http://felineleukemia.org/mailman/listinfo/felvtalk_felineleukemia.org _______________________________________________ Felvtalk mailing list [email protected] http://felineleukemia.org/mailman/listinfo/felvtalk_felineleukemia.org
