by DogMa » December 13th, 2006, 12:22 pm
Well, the news was pretty much as expected. It hasn't spread to her lungs, which I guess is good. The doc said it could be months, but it's much more likely to be weeks, given how quickly it's progressed (it's now visible from the outside, and last night she wouldn't eat or go outside; she didn't even want to come into my room at bedtime, and she woke me up a couple of hours later because she was so restless). He said it's more than 99 percent likely that it's cancer, and the only other thing it could be was a rare fungus - which would be treatable but the outcome would most likely be the same.
So I opted to not put her through the CT scan or biopsy, and he gave me some meds for her pain. Palliative radiation could help with the pain, too, but it's usually a weekly treatment for about three weeks - given that she only HAS a few weeks, that again seems like a lot to put her through. The closest place that even does it is in Dallas. He said the new medication (which she'll be taking along with a smaller dose of Tramadol and her Deramaxx, since the liver enzymes aren't really a concern at this point) will knock her out for a couple of days, but then she'll get used to them and be more awake. He warned me, though, about what's to come in the next few weeks, and it's not pretty: more trouble with pottying, possibly the other hind leg going, etc. So I'm going to start her with the new meds and see how she does, but I think I'll be letting her go in a week or two.
On the positive side, she actually went outside when we got home, and she gobbled up her Chicken McNuggets and fries like a champ. So we'll be frequent visitors to McDonald's and KFC for as long as she has left. (And no, I didn't have any. I got her a Happy Meal; she had three nuggets and most of the fries, Teemu had one nugget and the rest of the fries, and I had half the kiddie-size Diet Coke and the toy. I don't want to leave her at all today, though, so I can't get to the supermarket and I have nothing in the house. So I'll be ordering Chinese delivery tonight, but I figure I'll get steamed chicken and veggies or something simple like that. Either some fried wontons or something for her, or I think there's some leftover pizza in the freezer. She loves pizza.)
Robin
203/130/130
Reached goal in August 2006
Added BodyBugg in May 2009
New ticker: 136.6/123.2/130