Chemotherapy

Chemotherapy for cats is not the same as it is for humans.  The vet keeps saying, "We are going for maintenance, not for a cure."  I don't really understand that because I thought we were fighting for a cure.  Why wouldn't we fight for a cure?  I asked that exact question, "Why not?" and was told in order to go for a cure, we would have to push enough chemo into Rumble so that he would experience the same reactions that humans did and we didn't have the right to put his body through that without being able to explain it to him.  Ok, that makes sense, I guess, but I still want a cure. 

Chemotherapy attacks rapidly dividing cells so they are trying to prevent any leftover cancer cells from spreading any further.  Ok, but does that mean he will have to be on chemo forever?  I don't know.  Right now I just know he's on 5 rounds of chemo and each round is three weeks long.  If he loses any hair, I've been told it will only be his whiskers because they are made of a different type of cell than the hairs on his body are. 

Before each round of chemo a blood CBC is run.  I'm not exactly sure what that stands for but I know they are testing his blood to make sure his body will be able to handle the chemo.  If his platelet counts and other things are not within normal ranges, then they won't proceed.  Rumble has had normal ranges. 

Rumble is always sedated prior to chemo.  Poor guy, I know I wouldn't sit still either if I were him, so it's easier to just put him to sleep during the process. 

Week 1 of chemo includes a combination of two drugs Carboplatin and Gemcitabine.  The latter of which is a rare chemo for rare cancers so they don't keep it in stock and have to special order it.  Because of this, his chemo treatments have been rescheduled because the pharmacy/oncology/whoever, failed to order the Gemcitabine.  Week 2 of chemo is only one drug so the whole process takes about half the time. 

Because Rumble is receiving two chemos in one session, they are being given 4 hours apart.  Because no one in the city can give Rumble the chemo he needs, I drive an hour up to OSU, usually our appointment is at 9am, and then I sit in the waiting room and read a book for the next 6 hours, hopefully I am out the door by 5pm when they close but I have left as late at 7pm.  It takes so long because they have to examine him, wait for his blood work to come back, sedate him, give chemo 1, wait 4 hours, sedate him again, and give chemo 2 and then let him recover a little while they talk to me about everything. 

Makes for a very long day.  I don't know why, but at the end of chemo treatment days, I'm exhausted.  I drove for an hour, sat in a waiting room for 6 to 8 hours, and then drove an hour home.  I didn't do anything strenuous but I go home, feed Rumble and make sure he is comfortable and immediately go to bed for the day.  Being a care taker is exhausting.