Babe update.

[kyrielle]

After going over the details with Scott, I suspect it is cancer, just not the one we'd feared. There's not one growth in her nose - there's three in her nose/sinus areas, one accessible. That said, it's possible though not probable that one or more is non-cancerous, related to other problems as noted in the earlier post.

They did a spinal tap while she was under yesterday, and we got the results back today. Clear. Not brain cancer, and no cancer has made it to the brain yet, basically.

They told Scott that if it is cancer, since it's not brain cancer, it may be treatable with radiation or chemo. Obviously if that's the case we'll need to know more about what it does for her odds versus what it puts her through.

First, to find out if it's cancerous. We've been passed to the internists at the vet specialist place; that team will give Scott a call tomorrow to schedule an appointment for Babe to go in again, this time for investigation and biopsy of the reachable mass. That will mean another round of fasting and sedation.

So at this point we're on scheduling hold, but pretty soon I'll be all twitchy again. I'm still hoping it's not cancer, but I admit I'm finding it harder to hope. Then again, I found it almost impossible to believe it wasn't brain cancer - and it wasn't. So all those good thoughts have already helped, and maybe Babe will get really lucky yet again. I would prefer something treatable, preferably treatable without putting her through too much misery.

Comments

[canyoncat.livejournal.com]

I am still holding out hope that it is not cancer. I cannot imagine putting a cat through chemo. *hugs*

[kyrielle]

Thank you. I hope it's not either.

I can't either, but they said brain cancer wasn't treatable but that chemo or radiation would be an option with this, if it's cancerous. I'm surprised by that. If it is cancer, I will need to discuss very seriously with them the implications for the cat of either treatment, since I don't know what they're like for the cat. Since I'm getting everything second-hand, I don't know if (for example) the expression and the posture of the vet would tell me that they are holding out long-shot-odd hopes because they perceive as "wanting to try everything" or if they are serious that it's a viable option with more chance of helping than harming. I'd need to actually go and talk to them. I'm willing to spend on this, yes, and I don't consider sedating a cat for an MRI/spinal tap or for biopsy to be something torturous to the cat. (Neither, except for the fasting part, does the cat appear to have had any issue with at least the first part!) But I'd need to know more about chemo/radiation for a cat before deciding on that...it just sounds like it might not be a great idea.

I'm really hoping I won't have to learn any of that because hey, she's beaten the odds once already. Once or twice more and we might have something that can be treated with oral antibiotics or steroids or both and, while I know what she thinks of those, the aggravation lasts less than 30 seconds after the dosing is done. ;)

[canyoncat.livejournal.com]

I hope it all works out, they can be incredibly strong critters at times.

How old is Babe?

[kyrielle]

Yeah, I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Babe is 5 years old.

Edited to add: which is one reason why I'm even going to ask what the implications of chemo/radiation are. It's conceivable that if we beat back whatever this is, she has a lot of years left. It's also conceivable that it won't be worth it even given her age, depending on what they tell us, if it comes to that. If she were older, I would consider it less of an open question (though I'd still ask, I think!).

[canyoncat.livejournal.com]

Yeah, Babe is not so old in cat years yet. She could another 10-15 or more years left in her if this can be taken care of/treated. If she was already in the 15-20 years range I would be questioning it myself.