Re-growth
of Hector's cancer
Wednesday,
October 16th - Its nearly two months after his surgery. I noticed
his leg again was swelling in the same place. I brought him in
to Dr. Liz the next day, (yesterday), for a diagnosis. The cancer
is growing back. She immediately referred me back to the onocologist
specialists at the Animal Speciality Group, and got me an appointment
for that afternoon. The onocologist took xrays of Hector's paws,
and asked me a lot of questions about when the first lump had
appeared and what had been done.
The
onocologist seemed a little surprized, we had never xrayed his
paw, either before or after the proceedure. In retrospect, it
seems like something that certainly should have been done, along
with a sonogram (not an xray) of his entire body, to make sure
there were no other tumors. But perhaps the clear xrays and lab
results made it seem unecessary. She attempted to take a needle
sample from the lump as well, just to see if perhaps it gave her
some other clues, however she said if it was again the Hemangiosarcoma
growing - as it seemed to be - it wouldn't show anything other
than bloody cells. And that is what it showed.She offered me a
few options, but I opted for the most comprehensive, which included
a two-cavity sonogram, and at that point the surgeons would decide
if the mass could be simply removed again, if his leg would need
to be entirely amputated; and if the sonograms showed the cancer
had spread to his liver or heart, as this type of cancer often
does, what treatments could be possible at that point.
The
onocologist said a few things that I found very disheartening.
One, that cancer is rare in cats, so they do not have statistical
data to support which treatments or combination of treatments
result in the best survival rate. That they extrapolate the data
they have from treating dogs where there is no or very little
data for cats, such as with Hemangiosarcoma. (See this
website for supporting reported data).
Next
> October 22-27th
