Moving And Not Feeling Good, Better Now Though!

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.

 Last Monday we went to BluePearl for my check up. I was already feeling better after being off the chemo for a few days.

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.

It Has Been A While Cause I've Been On Vacay!

I haven't written a post in a while because it's been busy around here and also because mom hogs the computer most of the time. The past couple of weeks we've been in Birmingham, AL trying to sell our house there and then back home to Pensacola Beach and then to St. Pete Beach. I have to be taken with mom and dad because of all the medication and holistic stuff I'm on for my heart disease and liver cancer. Mom doesn't want to leave me, not even with a sitter.

The St. Pete trip wasn't really a vacation. Dad had a job interview and while we were there, mom took me to see a local holistic vet. Lucky for me, there was no time for acupuncture, although the vet said it would help me. She did give me a general check up and said my temperature (I won't even mention how this was taken!) was normal and my heart sounded good - no murmurs. She did some realignment down my spine to help open me up. I growled a warning to her especially when she got down to my tail.

Mom bought a new backpack carrier and halter for me so she could transport me better and take me outside with her. I didn't like the harness that much, but I tolerated it so I could go outside. Also, I really loved being an "only" cat because those other two furry imbeciles I live with didn't get to go with us. They wouldn't handle traveling as well as I do anyway. Dad always plays my favorite jazz for me on the road.  It took us 7 hours to get from Pensacola down to St. Pete. That's a lot of jazz!!

My new backpack carrier

Our view at lunch

This crate has gotten ALOT of use lately!

The view from our room. Mom even brought my cat bed for me to sleep in.

We are back home now. I started eating good again right before we left for St. Pete and not throwing up, so I'm back on Palladia. The holistic vet looked over everything I was taking and approved the krill oil stuff and the venus fly trap anti-inflammatory stuff. She like the milk thistle drops, but said I wasn't taking a strong enough version. I need 80% or up. She wasn't familiar with some of things in the Celloquent, but like the Co Q 10 and blue green algae and the wheat grass that was in the nu pet granular, although she said I didn't really need the nu pet granular, just the wheat grass.

She approved the Palladia and said we should follow through with the course until we go back to Auburn to see how the tumor in my liver is responding to it. I did start doing better after going on it in July.

She said to boil the ES-clear to get the alcohol out before I take it. She is also sending us some other medicinal herbs that will help me.

Tuesday I managed to spit one of the Palladia pills out because I hid it in my mouth and mom didn't see it. She got the blue pill down me, but Dad found the yellow/orange pill the next day out on the balcony where I had spit it out. Today she made sure I swallowed both pills because I've been sleeping more the past two days and she's worried the cancer is spreading.

I go back to Auburn University in October for a full round of tests to see what the cancer is doing and how my heart is doing and get blood work. For now I have good days and bad days. I am still eating a little, but not as good as I use to.