The past several weeks have been a little hectic for me and my family. In October we moved back to Birmingham from Pensacola Beach for a couple of weeks to get our house ready to put on the market and to pack up everything that was left there.
During that time I had to go to Auburn University Small Animal hospital for the big four month checkup. I had been on Palladia for my cancer since July and Atenolol and Lasix for my heart since April.
They shaved my stomach for the ultrasound, took blood and poked and prodded at me while mom killed time at Dunkin Donuts. I didn't get an echo cardiogram during this exam because I'm not due for one until December.
The news wasn't good.
My tumors had grown and spread to more of my liver and my calcium levels were starting to go up again after being normal for almost three months.
The Palladia was not working anymore.
The vets suggested IV chemo, but that wasn't an option at that point because we were moving 8 or 9 hours away to the Tampa area so this was probably going to be my last visit to Auburn. The other alternative was a new chemo drug called Chlorambucil and an appetite stimulant/serotonin depressant called Cyproheptadine.
I took these two pills every day for almost two weeks. My appetite improved and I pigged out even on the grain free food that none of us cats really like very well. I started feeling better briefly.
We moved during that time to the Tampa/St Pete area and drove several hours. I did pretty good on the trip.
A few days later I became very sick. After 2 weeks on the new meds, I was sleeping more, not eating much again and feeling lethargic so mom stopped giving me the pills and called Auburn. They told her not to give me any more of the pills until I had my two week blood work. We had to find a new vet in Tampa. Auburn suggested BluePearl. They have an Oncology specialist there so mom made the appointment.
At BluePearl they did bloodwork, a checkup, another ultrasound and also went ahead and did the echo cardiogram on my heart so we won't have to do it next month and they could get a baseline of where I am at right now. They were very nice and we felt very comfortable knowing they were referred by Auburn Veterinary hospital and the vet was an Auburn grad herself. It was a long day of testing and waiting for me and mom but...
Good mews!
The chemo was working. My calcium levels had gone back down to normal again. My tumors were the same - no bigger and no signs of spread, no heart murmur, but the walls of my heart are a little thick and therefore the hypertrophic cardiomyopathy diagnosis still stands, but I have no signs of heart failure.
Also, all my blood work was normal and liver levels normal, no signs of liver failure from drugs.
The vets suggestion was to continue the Chlorambucil, but every other day instead of every day and continue the Atenolol, but slowly wean off the Lasix.
Mom also started giving me the krill oil, herbal anti inflammatory and a little celloquent every day although I don't like it and always try to run. I do better with pills that syringes of liquids. Mom had stopped giving it to me every day when I started on the new chemo drug. She does think it makes me feel better though and is still looking for a holistic vet to help combine the holistic with the traditional.
So far she hasn't been able to find one. The one she thought she found never sent the herbal meds that were promised. We are not sure what happened, but don't want to go back there either because we would rather find a vet that combines both types of approaches since I am on chemo and have a very aggressive type of cancer.
I am doing much better right now taking chemo every other day and eating grain free food for the most part and doing the immune protocol along with milk thistle and a few drops of life gold cancer drops in my food.
Now mom is looking for another, yes ANOTHER, local vet to do bloodwork and regular exams. BluePearl is just a specialty vet and we need to find a regular vet to do bloodwork, get prescriptions, etc. We found out I had cancer right before we moved to Pensacola Beach and now we have moved again to St. Petersburg, FL. I have gone to my normal vet in Birmingham, AL, a vet in Pensacola Beach, FL, Auburn University Animal hospital, BluePearl, a holistic vet and now another vet in St. Pete.
This has been a long, tiring, scary, not to mention expensive process. Please pray for me to keep getting better and stronger and make this cancer go away forever.
Purrrs and headbonks to all my furrylicious blog readers.
You are amazing, Phantom - an inspiration to cancer kitties everywhere.
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