A Decision Has Been Made

(posted by Meowmie L)

Today has been a proper rollercoaster, which i have ridden before with Stormie. i have questioned people with experience of FOSCC, myself, my vet, the oncologist...i just wish i could question the most important one of all...Timmy.

Despite the huge odds against Timmy, the oncologist called this morning and her first words were "Well I have some good news!" It seems the tumour has not affected the bone yet, so the surgery required would be minimal and affect soft-tissue only. This would be followed by 4 doses of radiation over a four week period. It seems Timmy has been given a rare chance.

I have had numerous conversations with my vet and oncologist today , and due to the fact that Timmy is in excellent health, we have caught things early, the cancer is not invading the bone and it has not spread anywhere else, recovery from surgery should be pretty quick...apparently it is not much more invasive than when he had his biopsy, which he recovered from within a day or two. My vet also called the oncologist and after the conversation reassured me that if Timmy was her cat that she would proceed with the treatment too, given all the circumstances (if it had involved removing any jaw bone she said that she would probably not go ahead with anything).

The radiation may irritate his mouth a little, but it is a short 4 week course and only one dose a week - not an intensive protocol - involving just a 2 hour stay at the vets each time. any side effects will be 'local' to the cancer site i.e. no nausea etc. the tumour is not big so the hole won't be huge. Tim will not be disfigured in any way at all and will not have future problems with eating, drinking, washing etc (should all go well). this was one of my major concerns.

The biggest concern is that the wound will irritate Timmy and put him off eating, but the oncologist is pretty confident that the wound will cause no more irritation than the biopsy. If however it does irritate him and he won't eat, they can pop a feeding tube in for a few days until he is healed, at least getting nutrition in to him - sounds hideous i know, but a very easy and common procedure. And then of course there is also the concern that the cancer could come back....there are no guarantees. If this happened then nature would take it's course, i would only try for a cure the once.

Unexpectedly the odds are in Tim's favour, he has been given a slim and rare chance according to both my vet and oncologist - they rarely get to see cats where the tumour has not yet affected other parts of the face/body or started impacting on their health, these tumours do not show up usually until it is too late - in Timmy's case the location and size of the tumour make treatment worth a go.

i have beaten myself up over this today, sought advice from all sorts of quarters, asked a hundred questions on feline cancer forums and we are going to give Tim the chance. I really was accepting of the fact that i was going to let him go this morning...yesterday i had chatted things over with my vet and Meowmie J and we discussed the options and we all kind of agreed that the ONLY way surgery would become an option is if by a miracle the oncologist called up with really positive news and said Timmy had a good chance of surviving...which she did this morning...Timmy has been given an 80% chance of long-term survival if the treatment is successful. We think it is worth trying...of course we all remain totally aware that this is a nasty cancer with low success rates...

Timmy's quality of life will still remain paramount to us and ANY indication that the surgery or radiation has failed and he is in pain then we will do what is necessary for him. we can easily stop the process if we feel it is not working for Timmy.

Timmy is scheduled to have his surgery tomorrow (Wednesday 23rd).

Thank you all for your support and friendship
xxx

An Update on Timmy

Meowmie has just come back from the consultation at the oncologist and we are not sure we want to put my Timmy through the things described. We have three scenarios...

1) If appropriate (CT scan will reveal all tomorrow, they didn't do it today) surgery and radiation can be performed to try and achieve a cure. This will involve a feeding tube post-op for an undefined amount of time - anything from a few days to a month - depending on how Timmy recovers (We have no idea what a feeding tube entails or how uncomfortable it would be for Tim, if at all). He will also lose part of his jaw...which could make eating, drinking, washing a bit messy. Survival times range from 3 months through to a year, some cats reach 2 years...however 90% of cats don't reach a year...

2) If surgery is not an option then they can treat him with radiotherapy and chemo combo, this is not a cure but can prolong his life a little. The window of survival ranged from 2 months to 14 months, with a median of something like 170 days There is a new study which involves giving radiation treatment twice a day for 7 days, split over the course of 10 days (there are days off between some treatments). Chemo is given as well. This will involve a full aneasthetic, twice a day. Timmy has a mild heart mumur so this is not ideal at all. Post-treatment again we are looking at feeding tubes for an unspecified amount of time and possible discomfort.

3) We do nothing, just manage the illness with palliative care and concentrate on quality of life over quantity. He could be gone within weeks.

The Meowmies just doesn't know what to do...part of them thinks that he is almost 15 (in December) and we should let nature take its course, and give him quality of life. Another part loves him so much that they want to do everything they possibly can for him...but is that the best thing for him, or is that just them being selfish because they can't bear the thought of letting him go?

The options we have been given just sound as if they are going to cause him lots of discomfort - and one of those options isn't even a cure! It seems a lot to put him through when the odds are stacked so highly against him...from what the Meowmies have been reading the survival times for cats who have been treated for FOSCC are very poor.

I fink the Meowmies have definitely ruled out Option 2 and unless the oncologist phones up tomorrow and is 100% positive that the surgery will be minimal and Timmy is a great candidate for a successful outcome...then Option 3 looks most likely :(

xxx

Some Bad News...

Well, we are not sure how to say it, so we will just be blunt...our little Timmy Tantrum has got oral cancer. It is Feline Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma...the worst oral cancer there is apparently. Mummy found a lump on his cheek/lower jaw bone about 2 weeks ago, on his Gotcha Day, so Tim had a biopsy last week and the results came in yesterday.



There are no other signs that he has a problem...he is 100% normal, all his blood tests, xrays etc show him to be a very healthy cat for his almost 15 years of age so Caroline Vet feels we have caught it early - no other signs of illness and or spread apart from the little lump in his cheek - and she holds a little hope that it is in a location that may be ok for surgery...but she is not an expert so she has sent off all the reports, pictures, x-rays etc to a specialist small animal cancer place just outside of London to see what they feel would be an apprpriate course of treatment...if any. We hope to have an assessment back in the next day or so. Ben Vet has gone back to school to get some more letters after his name, he is the lovely vet that treated and worked miracles with Storm...Caroline Vet is his boss so Tim will be in excellent hands too.

So our question is has anyone here had any experience of dealing with this type of cancer? We have some tough decisions to make if we are presented with treatment options - if i there are no treatment options then there are no decisions to make. The most effective treatment would be surgical removal and radiation if the tumour is in a good place for surgery...but we are concerned about post-surgery health, how do cats recover from oral surgeries? Also, does anyone know of any forums which are specific to oral cancers in cats? And any diet tips to slow down cancer growth?

Meowmie L is away for a few days with limited internet access but Meowmie J is staying with us and feeding us and loving us in her absence.

Thanks for any feedback - we really appreciate everyone on the Cat Blogosphere, even if we are rarely around these days xxx

Timmy's 1st Gotcha Day!

Hey everyone...it's gone so quick. but it is a year ago today that the Meowmies rescued Timmy from Siamese Rescue! It was this time last year when I wondered what was going on in the bathroom....little did I know at the time that Timmy was living in there until such as time as we could meet.

We had an interesting dynamic to start with, a few battles, but nothing serious, the clashes were more out of curiosity than hatred for each other really. We are firm friends now...we cuddle, we eat together, we play and yes Timmy still likes to try and be Alpha Cat from time to time but I soon let him know whose boss! Storm would never had put up with some of his behaviours I can tell you - it's a good job Timmy had to integrate with me and not Stormie to be honest!

Anyways, we thought you might like to see a selection of pictures of Timmy, and a few of myself and Timmy being close. Thank you to everyone who sends us little messages from time to time, it means a lot :). Please write us a litle update about yourself if you come by and visit, Meowmie does not get time to visit all the blogs anymore. Thanks you xxx

Storm's Tree

Thank you all for stopping by my blog, and Storm's blog last week on her anniversary. It meant a lot to us.

I wanted to let you know that the Meowmies had a lovely day remembering Stormie. Firstly the Meowmies went to the Cambridge Pet Crematorium where Stormie was cremated. Even though Stormie is not buried at the pet crematorium, the Meowmies wanted to go there and visit the Gardens of Rememberance and spend some time thinking of her. They also planted a little silver birch tree in the gardens. amongst an established group of silver birches. We are not sure this is really allowed... but we hope the gardener doesn't rip it out, but finds it and lovingly cares for it.

After the visit to the Gardens, they went on and spent the reast of the day in Cambridge, visiting the market where Meowmie L bought Meowmie J a book about the seashore. Meowmie J was flicking through it and stopped at a page that caught her eye that had a picture of a beautiful beach on it...it was called Storm Beach! How coincidental is that? Maybe Stormie is sending little messages to us from The Bridge...After the market they stopped for somthing to eat and then wandered down to the River Cam and watched the world go by. It was a lovely day. Meowmie L then came home and gave me and Timmy some chicken, in memory of Chicken Face.

Here is the picture of the little silver birch tree for Stormie. Have a good weekend everyone xxx

Dearest Stormie...

One year on today...it has gone so fast, it feels like yesterday when we cuddled for the last time, waiting for Ben Vet to come and lead you safely to The Bridge.
Much has changed since you left Little Lady, and we all miss you terribly. I have a companion called Timmy now, obviously he never knew you, but your legacy was to allow homeless Timmy to come into our lives and be part of our family for the twilight of his life, after his own Meowmie died. I know you were worried about me being lonely, and I reckon it was your guiding paw that helped Timmy and my Meowmies find each other...he has settled in pretty well and we are good company for each other. Thank you.

Today we are all going to remember you and share some special moments in your memory, the meowmies have a nice day out planned in your memory. This is a little movie that Meowmie made about you Stormie, we hope you, and everyone else, enjoys seeing it...

Lots of Love
Castle & The Meowmies (and Timmy)
xxx

Gotcha Day!

Well...what a beautiful surprise, despite my distinct lack of blogging I awoke to find two lovely Gotcha Day messages from Cheysuli and the gang over at A Few Good Cats! SO I thought I would see how they found out and of course it was the wonderful people over at the Cat Blogosphere who had started the remembering off. How very lovely that I was remembered...

As we were typing this post out Craig and Caroline Hind also left us a message...Craig and Caroline are a little bit special for us cos some months ago they found me via Storm's blog. You see they had a beautiful cat called Panther who had the lymphoma too and when they were reading about lymphoma just after Panther's sudden passing they found Storm's blog and left us such heart-touching messages...and then they were inspired to start cat blogging by us! Thank you Craig and Caroline...we know you loved Panther very, very much and we are sorry you had to go through this lymphoma thing as well.

I may be without my Stormie today - my first alone Gotcha Day - but she is here in other guises, and alive in the many memories I and others have of her. This is our Gotcha Day post from Stormie's blog last year. This is our fave kitten pic of Stormie:



So, I may be without Stormie...but I have Timmy, my adopted brother, who is OK and good company mostly. He has been here 9 months now and we are pretty close - we wash each other's ears, we snuggle together, we play and run around like two kittens (well, we try, but we are Old Geezers so the play sessions don't last long). We are both the Alpha cats of the home, so Meowmie now has two big boys cats vying for her attention. Timmy still likes to chase me about and will instigate most of the play sessions but cos he is creaky and not as agile as me I usually win all the time or if I am not in the mood will just jump up on the sideboard to get away from him. It has worked out incredibly well, especially when you think Timmy had not shared his previous home with other cats. Timmy is still not much of a purrer - in fact he only started purring about 2 months ago - and only when he is groomed/brushed...very rarely will he purr just for the sake of it! Weirdo. Here are some pics of Tim and I...Thanks for stopping by and wishing me a happy Gotcha Day!!! We hope you are all well xxx