We found out Rumble gained 0.25 pounds this week. That's great; a fourth of a pound in a week is awesome. He now weighs 0.1 MORE than he did when he went in for surgery back in April. We are on an upward slope and climbing steadily.
Chemo was good. "Unremarkable" is always the term you want to hear. That means his blood was within normal parameters and chemo went just fine. I always enjoy it when my checkout papers say "unremarkable" at the top.
Two weeks off and we start round 5. Then our vet thinks Rumble will get a month to 6 weeks off, we will bring him in for his ultrasound sometime, and decide after all that, what to do. Maybe chemo once a month? Who knows? Let's all just cross our fingers that he has another great two weeks off during his drug holiday and gains at least another 0.6 pounds like he did last time.
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
Sunday, July 10, 2011
Good News
Well, my vet called around 4pm Saturday and said after having everyone in the pathology department take a look at Rumble's slides....they decided they were NOT cancer cells. Prayers answered!
He said they were not the normal cells that they were looking for so they had a hard time identifying them. What they were looking for, I don't know, but he said they were the cells that line the inside of your abdomen, kind of like your skin on the inside. He didn't expect them to be loose and free floating in this liquid so that's why it took so long to identify them.
Soooo, YAY! Not cancer cells like he thought but he said the liquid is still a concern because no one should have extra liquid just floating around in their abdomen. We have another ultrasound scheduled in 6 weeks.
We have week 2 of round 4 of chemo on Friday so I guess it will be back to business as usual. Thanks for your thoughts and prayers.
He said they were not the normal cells that they were looking for so they had a hard time identifying them. What they were looking for, I don't know, but he said they were the cells that line the inside of your abdomen, kind of like your skin on the inside. He didn't expect them to be loose and free floating in this liquid so that's why it took so long to identify them.
Soooo, YAY! Not cancer cells like he thought but he said the liquid is still a concern because no one should have extra liquid just floating around in their abdomen. We have another ultrasound scheduled in 6 weeks.
We have week 2 of round 4 of chemo on Friday so I guess it will be back to business as usual. Thanks for your thoughts and prayers.
Friday, July 8, 2011
Good news - Bad news
Good news - Rumble had a great two weeks and gained weight. 0.6 pounds YIPEE! That's great for a cat at his current weight. We must have found the correct balance between the enzymes on his food and the enzymes we mix into a slurry and shoot down his throat after each meal.
Bad news - They did an ultrasound of Rumble's abdomen to see how things were looking and our vet saw some free floating liquid that's not supposed to be there. He thinks it's coming from the pancreas and the cells do not look normal. There in the waiting room, in front of other people, he told me he thinks it is most likely cancer cells because they didn't look normal to him. They drained the liquid (about 5ccs) and are testing it for carcinoma cells and they will give me a call tonight or tomorrow.
Apparently, when the pancreas is diseased with cancer, it just crumbles and pieces dissolve and break off and just float around. So our vet thinks he has some cancer cells just floating around in his abdomen looking for an organ or wall to attach to. That's why pancreatic cancer is so bad and usually involves other organs. This sounds horrible and our vet said it is not good news.
He will increase Rumble's chemo by 10% since his body/blood seems to be tolerating it so well. We just started round 4 of 5. I was hoping to be done soon. He said we might also add another oral drug to be administered at home, but didn't explain any further.
He considers Rumble a success story, but I'm just not feeling it today. I went in with such high hopes because I knew he had a great two weeks and had put on weight. I watched a family of four today in the waiting room learn that their dog has some sort of pancreatic lymphoma and I broke down watching them break down. It hurts so much and I'm so tired of bad news.
Please send Rumble prayers and energy that these cells are anything in the world besides cancerous or that they respond well to the uppage of chemo. Thanks for thinking of us!
Bad news - They did an ultrasound of Rumble's abdomen to see how things were looking and our vet saw some free floating liquid that's not supposed to be there. He thinks it's coming from the pancreas and the cells do not look normal. There in the waiting room, in front of other people, he told me he thinks it is most likely cancer cells because they didn't look normal to him. They drained the liquid (about 5ccs) and are testing it for carcinoma cells and they will give me a call tonight or tomorrow.
Apparently, when the pancreas is diseased with cancer, it just crumbles and pieces dissolve and break off and just float around. So our vet thinks he has some cancer cells just floating around in his abdomen looking for an organ or wall to attach to. That's why pancreatic cancer is so bad and usually involves other organs. This sounds horrible and our vet said it is not good news.
He will increase Rumble's chemo by 10% since his body/blood seems to be tolerating it so well. We just started round 4 of 5. I was hoping to be done soon. He said we might also add another oral drug to be administered at home, but didn't explain any further.
He considers Rumble a success story, but I'm just not feeling it today. I went in with such high hopes because I knew he had a great two weeks and had put on weight. I watched a family of four today in the waiting room learn that their dog has some sort of pancreatic lymphoma and I broke down watching them break down. It hurts so much and I'm so tired of bad news.
Please send Rumble prayers and energy that these cells are anything in the world besides cancerous or that they respond well to the uppage of chemo. Thanks for thinking of us!
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