Meow News Update

Update on the cat situation with my children's precious kitties....On Monday, we spent the day in another city with my daughter's cat, "Sweet Pea," as she was scheduled for a CT scan that day, along with x-rays and bloodwork. The report came back 24 hours later from NC State University. She has no cancer at this time, although she had what they call a dirty perimeter or something, which means, medically speaking, that there are tendrils outside the incision area (that would eventually turn into more tumors) that need to receive radiation treatments. So starting this coming Monday, we will be traveling back and forth with her 5 days a week for the next 4 weeks to and from the wonderful Upstate Veterinary Specialists facility. They have a separate cancer wing there with oncologists on staff. She will actually receive a total of 19 radiation treatments. Each day she will have to be anesthesized for the treatment. In by 8:30am and should be ready to go home by 11:30am each day. Her prognosis looks very promising. Cost of the CT scan was $1,670 and the radiation treatments will be $6,000. My daughter already has spent over $1400 on the previous 2 surgeries. Then after that there will be another CT scan done to be sure all tendrils have been destroyed, and, at that time, it will be determined if she will need another surgery to remove more of the surrounding tissue. The doctor said maybe no further surgery will be necessary.

I met my son at this same facilty on Tuesday as his kitty, "Punky," was to have a CT scan done. Bless her little heart, she has cancer of the mouth, and it has spread into her nasal cavity. Surgery isn't even an option for her, and her prognosis is 3-4 weeks, at best. She is on pain medication every 8 hours, and we were told that as long as she continues to eat and drink, she should be allowed to continue with life. When she stops eating and drinking, then it will be the time to give her that one last gift....her release from suffering. She is still playing and everything, although the one side of her little face is swollen from the tumor in the jaw bone and surrounding area. The oncologist who is handling both cats' cases said by the time this type of cancer becomes visible to the owner, it is already too late to do anything. This type is very rare to be found in the mouth. At another specialists facility in a different city, my son was told they could remove her jaw and half her nose, but that wouldn't buy her but just a few more weeks of life, so why put her through such a radical surgery? If it would cure her, absolutely, we would have chosen the surgery. We got her at our local shelter here almost 17 years ago when she was just a tiny kitten, and she has had a wonderful, loving home and a long life.

Needless to say, our entire family is very upset about both cats. They are members of our family, and we love them dearly, but all we can do now is place both of them in God's hands.