Category Archives: feline myxo sarcoma

Dee comes home

I brought Dee home about an hour ago. I’d like to tell you otherwise, but it’s heartbreaking to see her shaved and stitched so heavily… and with her leg no longer there.

The good news? She’s here, healthy and still our Delilah.

Al was right – no major butt-chewing for me – but lots of I’m home again loud meowing when we pulled in to the driveway. Her first efforts at walking were horribly painful to witness. But Dr. Ueno and Dr. Okimura were spot on when they said she’ll adapt quickly… she’s already bracing her rear legs wider apart and putting more weight on her left front leg, both to compensate for the missing front leg. Her brain hasn’t yet adapted to the missing limb in her efforts to walk so she’s falling on her right front side, but we’re sure it will soon.

The next few weeks will be challenging for our entire pack, but thanks to the support we’re receiving from everyone, we’ll make it just fine. Life, huh?

You’re welcome to stop by any time and visit – I’m sure Dee would love the company.

hal

Here’s to Delilah!


Am I tan yet?

I caught this nice pic of Delilah laying in the sunlight in the foyer… when I first saw her there, she was curled up, asleep. By the time I got back with my camera, she was wondering what I was up to.


A little help with the handle, please – my thumb’s haven’t grown in.

Because Dee was heading off to Kirkwood Animal Hospital today for her surgical procedure, she spent the night isolated and sleeping in the dining room. She ate a couple of cans of food before 10, then was restricted to water-only until surgery late this morning.

When I came out to the kitchen to make coffee this morning, the instant I turned on the kitchen light, I heard her loud meoowwww coming from the dining room. Hey, old guy, somehow I got left in the dining room without any food – lemme out, wouldya anyway? Because I’d placed all the pet-reachable pet food around the house, I let her out of the dining room and caught a 2nd, much more vocal and, dare I say – personal – round of ass-chewing for leaving her in the dining room.

Since the rest of the pack was getting hungry – 2 dogs and 1 still-fairly-big-but-scrawny-looking cat (Pandora) were pimping me pretty hard for food – we put the dogs and their food outside on the deck and Pan’s food up on her feeding area. Then we isolated Dee in the front section of the house.

She whined loudly.

She stared intently.

She cleaned her fur while waiting for the doorman to realize his mistake.

Then in a moment of clarity, she got it: He’s really being a d**k (dork 😉 today.

Just a few minutes after this pic, I scooped her up and off we went to Dr. Ueno and Kirkwood. When I dropped her off, they said, Don’t worry, we’ll take good care of her.

After 23+ years of looking after Amber, Lucy, Daphne, Penny, Pepper-Do-You-Want-Her?, Pandora and Delilah, herself, we know they will.

Life, huh?

Yesterday was quite a day around here.

Bike ride in to town early in the morning – nice, cool weather. Coffee, catch up on the 2.5 pages of local news in the Merc. Ride back home to shoot film (er, pixels) of ‘Liv harvesting tomatoes… we’ll get those up soon. Joanne and ‘Liv carving, burning and adding color to Chloe’s (‘Liv’s sister) birthday present – nicely researched, selected and applied to wood by ‘Liv and Joanne. I headed off to lunch with a friend / former co-worker that I met 14 years ago next month; he’s 39 now (he was such a gnarly puppy when we met), married with two children, busy career… sorting through life’s challenges and priorities, as we all do.

And so it was with great fear and trepidation that we took Delilah to meet her oncologist @ 1:45 yesterday afternoon. Wonderful place, all bright’n’shiny, very professional in appearance and operation… it was as professional and nice as a facility for humans – perhaps more.

Initial exam of Dee by a vet’s assistant, followed by our 1st meeting with the Vet. We found her oncologist to be warm, friendly and open. We confirmed Dee’s medical history (she had read her files from Kirkwood Animal Hospital and spoken with Dr. Ueno) and she gave us the basics on Dee’s situation: The biopsy revealed Dee’s cancer to be a slow-growth variety – if it hadn’t already spread to another place and they were able to remove the cancerous area, Dee would have a 90% chance of complete recovery / no further cancer. To determine the extent of her situation, Dee needed to have a chest xray… so, off they went.

Dee was returned to us in 5 minutes. Great news! Treatment options for the existing cancer are radiation and surgery, but with the location of Dee’s cancer, it’s unlikely they’ll be able to get all of the cancer with surgery and radiation is 16 days of daily visits and a pretty miserable recovery.

Or amputation of the leg.

The doc tells us that cats do remarkably well with 3 legs; we’re encouraged by this and through our relationship with Claire (Mike and Mimi’s pack member), we know 3 legs are better than no legs… and no pack member. We ask about the recovery period – how painful, how long? Dee stays in the hospital 1-2 days after surgery so they can monitor her pain around-the-clock and from there, she’ll need to adjust and find her way. How soon should we have it done? The next couple of weeks or seriously risk spreading of the cancer.

So there we are. We’ll make arrangements early in the week and begin the process of everyone moving forward.

Challenges and priorities, we’ve all got ’em and have to deal with them, yeah?

As always, thanks for visiting, be well and don’t forget to write when you get work 🙂

hal
btw – no small btw, either – we say thanks to each of you for your heartfelt inquiries and good wishes for Dee, they are much appreciated.

Very sad news today…

We’ve just learned that Delilah has a form of cancer, myxo sarcoma, in her leg joints. We have an appointment scheduled with a veterinary oncologist next Friday, but are in the dark about our treatment options or a more specific prognosis. As you would expect, we are distressed at the news of her condition.

Update on Sunday morning:
Yesterday I exchanged emails with another NSX owner who is a veterinarian. He indicated that (depending on her complete diagnosis,), there may be several courses of treatment for Dee. Surgery (to remove) and radiation and / or amputation of the affected leg. His feedback was that a life expectancy of 3-5 years post treatment could be expected.

Of course, we’d love to have Dee as she’s always been – bright’n’shiny with a bit of attitude – but if we can save her life without causing her undue pain and misery, we’re on it 🙂 She’s our “little one”, we love her and want the best for her (and of course) her presence with us for as long as possible.

I’ll have something bright’n’shiny to post over the next few days, so check in as you normally do.

hal