After our scare last time with the free floating liquid in Rumble's abdomen, my vet decided to up his chemo by 10%. That sounded ok to me. He wants to find the balance between the most medicine possible with the least amount of side effects. Well, I think there were side effects.
As you know anyone on chemo vomits; so does Rumble. We like giving him the Mirtazepine pill for nausea because it also has an appetite stimulant. Well, this last week Rumble vomited so often that we had to combine both the pill and the liquid anti-nausea medicine (Metaclopramide). It still didn't work all the time. He puked probably twice as much as he normally does and I think the vomit changed. It is usually pretty clear because I think it's mostly made of drool and few bits of food. This time it was dark brown and smelled horrible. I was not happy.
So, after vomiting both weeks during his drug holiday, I asked for the chemo to be taken back down by 10%. They agreed. This is week one of round five of his chemo treatments. We are only doing five rounds this time, so I'm really looking forward to this all being over for awhile.
They have changed how they are administering the chemo. It was originally 2 chemos, 4 hours apart, but that meant putting him under anesthesia twice and Rumble was really beginning to fight the second anesthesia. So, now they are giving one, waiting 20 minutes, and giving the second. You all know there is no set guideline to follow with this disease. I asked if this would hinder Rumble and my vet explained the first chemo breaks down the cancer cell walls and defenses. The second chemo kills the cells. So, is 20 minutes enough time for the first chemo to act before putting in the second chemo, he really doesn't know. But, that's what he has decided is best for Rumble at this time.
Rumble did not gain any weight, which I was really disappointed to hear, but he also did not lose any weight. With the change in his vomit over the past two weeks, I was ok with that. We have his second week of round five chemo this Friday. I'm really looking forward to it all being over. We will have a 6 to 8 week break before we bring him back in for an ultrasound and decide on our next plan of attack.
Thanks for keeping Rumble in your thoughts and prayers.
Monday, August 1, 2011
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
Weight Gain
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.
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.
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!
Thursday, June 30, 2011
A Good Week
FINALLY, Rumble has had a good week. We seem to have had two bad weeks in a row and I was really worried about having to put in that feeding tube, but Rumble has just been great this week so I'm hoping we don't have to.
I almost don't want to post because I don't want to jinx him.
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I almost don't want to post because I don't want to jinx him.
We've changed two things recently so I'm not sure which one to attribute it to. One, Rumble is on a new canned cat food from Hill's Prescription Diet called i/d Feline Gastrointestinal Health. This is a description from their website: "Dietary indiscretion, food allergies, or lack of digestive enzymes can affect your cat's digestive health. Efficient digestion is essential for your cat to be able to build and repair tissues and obtain energy, and for these reasons it is important to feed a food that is formulated to help support digestive health.
At Hill's, nutritionists and veterinarians have developed clinical nutrition especially formulated to help manage cats with digestive health problems. Due to its easily digestible ingredients, Prescription Diet® i/d® may also be helpful for cat recovering from gastrointestinal upset and routine surgery."
At Hill's, nutritionists and veterinarians have developed clinical nutrition especially formulated to help manage cats with digestive health problems. Due to its easily digestible ingredients, Prescription Diet® i/d® may also be helpful for cat recovering from gastrointestinal upset and routine surgery."
Rumble loves it. He is eating it just as well as he ate the Whiskas Wet Food Packets. I'm really excited. I will shop around to find the lowest price, but our vet carries it all the time for around $30 a case and each case holds 24 cans, I'm guessing. Rumble started eating about a can a day but the last few days, he's eaten 2 cans a day and I'm loving it! EAT, BABY, EAT!
Second, we have started giving Rumble half of his digestive enzymes through a syringe, mixed with tuna juice that I like to call his "slurry". The other half is sprinkled on his food and mixed in; hopefully the smaller amount allows the food to smell and taste a little better. As I've said before, it's not the easiest giving a cat a liquid medicine, but some combination of the new food and the slurry mix have worked because Rumble has had the best, solid poop he has had in months. And, he's only going once, maybe twice a day so the food is staying in his system longer and getting more properly absorbed. YAY! Before this, he was going 4 times a day or more and it was pure liquid.
In my opinion, he has put on weight this week and my husband even commented last night that his coat looks richer and more like it used to. His mouth ulcers haven't bled since my last post. This was a drug holiday week for him so I think that probably helped. He has chemo again on Friday of next week, but that's still another 7 days for him to recover and put on more weight.
Second, we have started giving Rumble half of his digestive enzymes through a syringe, mixed with tuna juice that I like to call his "slurry". The other half is sprinkled on his food and mixed in; hopefully the smaller amount allows the food to smell and taste a little better. As I've said before, it's not the easiest giving a cat a liquid medicine, but some combination of the new food and the slurry mix have worked because Rumble has had the best, solid poop he has had in months. And, he's only going once, maybe twice a day so the food is staying in his system longer and getting more properly absorbed. YAY! Before this, he was going 4 times a day or more and it was pure liquid.
In my opinion, he has put on weight this week and my husband even commented last night that his coat looks richer and more like it used to. His mouth ulcers haven't bled since my last post. This was a drug holiday week for him so I think that probably helped. He has chemo again on Friday of next week, but that's still another 7 days for him to recover and put on more weight.
Monday, June 27, 2011
Mouth Ulcers
For the last few weeks, I've been watching two small, white ulcers in Rumble's mouth. I first noticed them because he was extra drool-y. Out vet said to just watch them and make sure they don't get any bigger. He also said that Rumble has probably always had this mouth ulcer virus, only now, because of the immune suppressing chemotherapy, his body is not able to fight them from popping up.
So we've started giving Rumble half of his enzymes on his food and we are mixing the other half with some tuna juice and are putting it in a syringe, making him swallow it, in the hopes that his food tastes a little better and that he will eat more. We did that the other day and I noticed drops of blood on the floor. He was drooling half blood half tune juice out the side of his mouth. Not alot, but enough to freak me out. He has a new mouth ulcer at the corner of his mouth where his lips meet and it's super red and slightly bleeding. I called the OSU vet and he said as long as it doesn't get in the way of his eating and he doesn't paw at it then there is not much we can do about it.
I hate this "watch it" attitude. Something new crops up and they just want me to watch and say to call if it gets any worse. But in this case, it has gotten worse, I called, and they again said to just watch it. When will Rumble finally starting feeling better? When will he start gaining weight? How can I help him and treat these mouth ulcers?
He is on a drug holiday this week, so I'm hoping his body takes it easy this week and does some of the things that I want him too: gain weight, clear up these mouth ulcers, solid poop. Thanks for keeping him in your thoughts and prayers.
So we've started giving Rumble half of his enzymes on his food and we are mixing the other half with some tuna juice and are putting it in a syringe, making him swallow it, in the hopes that his food tastes a little better and that he will eat more. We did that the other day and I noticed drops of blood on the floor. He was drooling half blood half tune juice out the side of his mouth. Not alot, but enough to freak me out. He has a new mouth ulcer at the corner of his mouth where his lips meet and it's super red and slightly bleeding. I called the OSU vet and he said as long as it doesn't get in the way of his eating and he doesn't paw at it then there is not much we can do about it.
I hate this "watch it" attitude. Something new crops up and they just want me to watch and say to call if it gets any worse. But in this case, it has gotten worse, I called, and they again said to just watch it. When will Rumble finally starting feeling better? When will he start gaining weight? How can I help him and treat these mouth ulcers?
He is on a drug holiday this week, so I'm hoping his body takes it easy this week and does some of the things that I want him too: gain weight, clear up these mouth ulcers, solid poop. Thanks for keeping him in your thoughts and prayers.
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
Money
I hope everyone here understands that Rumble has no expiration date stamped on the bottom of his foot.
When we adopted him into our family, we promised to make sure he had the best possible life and that includes medical care. I think the majority of people think we are crazy for the amount of money we have spent on Rumble but you can't put a price tag on life and as long as it's still a good, loving life, we will keep on keeping on.
My husband and I pride ourselves in having no debt expect our house and student loans. But that has all changed with Rumble. We were able to pay for alot of his expenses with cash from our savings, but since then we have opened a Care Credit account and have put money on our credit card.
Care Credit is a 12 month, interest free credit card as long as you completely pay it off in 12 months. If not, they hit you with interest at 26.99%. That is huge. We plan to do everything possible to pay it off in 12 months and if not, at 11 months, we will transfer everything left onto our credit card that runs at 12.99% interest.
I will be completely honest with you about money. This hurts my brain a little and I don't want to add up the final number. Every original appointment with our vet cost $75 plus whatever additional we had done. Blood work, Ultrasound, and X-rays cost anywhere from $200 - $300 each time and I think we had 3 sets done. His surgery, anesthesia, pain meds, stay in the ICU, all his meds, post-op, everything he accrued while in the hospital, cost around $3,500. The first week of his chemo includes two medicines (one rare) and runs us about $440. The second week of his chemo only has one medicine (the rare one) and runs us about $240. He has 5 rounds of chemo. I've been told the feeding tube will cost around $250. His Viokase is expensive and costs around $80 for 4 ounces but that seems to last us about a month to 6 weeks. The two anti nausea medicines are cheap, in my opinion, around $8 each. We go through a ton of food, litter, trash bags, and cleaning solution every week. I'd say around $20 a week.
For the first time ever, we are living pay check to pay check. We are slowly building our savings account back up and are trying to pay off the Care Credit as fast as possible. We do not have insurance on Rumble, but I sure wish we had. Now, everything would be considered pre-existing so I'm not sure that it would be much help to add it. We do have Home Again insurance but that's only if he sustains an injury after having escaped our home. Hind Sight is 20-20, right?
Please don't be scared by the amount of money it takes. It has been worth every penny to us and we have never looked back.
When we adopted him into our family, we promised to make sure he had the best possible life and that includes medical care. I think the majority of people think we are crazy for the amount of money we have spent on Rumble but you can't put a price tag on life and as long as it's still a good, loving life, we will keep on keeping on.
My husband and I pride ourselves in having no debt expect our house and student loans. But that has all changed with Rumble. We were able to pay for alot of his expenses with cash from our savings, but since then we have opened a Care Credit account and have put money on our credit card.
Care Credit is a 12 month, interest free credit card as long as you completely pay it off in 12 months. If not, they hit you with interest at 26.99%. That is huge. We plan to do everything possible to pay it off in 12 months and if not, at 11 months, we will transfer everything left onto our credit card that runs at 12.99% interest.
I will be completely honest with you about money. This hurts my brain a little and I don't want to add up the final number. Every original appointment with our vet cost $75 plus whatever additional we had done. Blood work, Ultrasound, and X-rays cost anywhere from $200 - $300 each time and I think we had 3 sets done. His surgery, anesthesia, pain meds, stay in the ICU, all his meds, post-op, everything he accrued while in the hospital, cost around $3,500. The first week of his chemo includes two medicines (one rare) and runs us about $440. The second week of his chemo only has one medicine (the rare one) and runs us about $240. He has 5 rounds of chemo. I've been told the feeding tube will cost around $250. His Viokase is expensive and costs around $80 for 4 ounces but that seems to last us about a month to 6 weeks. The two anti nausea medicines are cheap, in my opinion, around $8 each. We go through a ton of food, litter, trash bags, and cleaning solution every week. I'd say around $20 a week.
For the first time ever, we are living pay check to pay check. We are slowly building our savings account back up and are trying to pay off the Care Credit as fast as possible. We do not have insurance on Rumble, but I sure wish we had. Now, everything would be considered pre-existing so I'm not sure that it would be much help to add it. We do have Home Again insurance but that's only if he sustains an injury after having escaped our home. Hind Sight is 20-20, right?
Please don't be scared by the amount of money it takes. It has been worth every penny to us and we have never looked back.
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