TRIPAWDS: Home to 22971 Members and 2152 Blogs.
HOME » NEWS » BLOGS » FORUMS » CHAT » YOUR PRIVACY » RANDOM BLOG

Misty Grey

She has things to do, like occupying sunbeams, drinking out of the bathroom sink, and being beautiful – on four legs, or three!

02-20-14 – Blue Pearl – Oncologist Consultation

Filed under: Uncategorized — ddmckenna at 6:57 pm on Thursday, February 20, 2014

Mom went with me and Misty to Tampa for the appointment with Blue Pearl. The doctor there examined Misty, reviewed all her records, and talked to me about the options.  The numbers for chemo/radiation were not encouraging – they would be expensive and arduous and buy Misty months maybe, if we were lucky.  Amputation really is her only hope for any kind of a cure.  I told her that my impression was that my vets were worried about Misty’s age, and that they thought that the sarcoma was already all through her body.  She said that her impression from talking with my vets was that their worry was more about Misty’s heart arrhythmia.  She told me some encouraging stories about older cats who did well after amputations.  She said she would look at the Xrays (which for some reason didn’t come through with the other information), and that if her look at it confirms what my vets found – nothing growing in her chest, lungs or heart, that the next step would be to do an ultrasound and see if everything looks good there.  Problems with the spleen can cause the type of arrhythmia that Misty has so she suggested it would be a good idea to make sure the spleen is OK and no cancer is there or anywhere else in her abdomen.  She said she would talk to my vets and explain to them about the statistics and how sarcoma acts differently in cats than in humans, and the slim chances that chemo and/or radiation would be of much help. And that she’d put it all in writing and give me a copy too.

1655595_10152618800187729_2008997912_o

My little pickle, all tuckered out from the efforts of chasing the Red Dot, wrestling with her ribbon, and rolling in catnip.

The cutest part isn’t visible in this photo – she still has catnip stuck to her chin.

EDIT: Here is the text of the oncologist’s report:

Today we discussed that we suspect that Misty has a soft tissue sarcoma on the right forelimb starting just above the carpus and extending to the elbow. Cytology is not 100% but we suspect on the basis of the growth over a 4 month period, palpation, x-rays and cytology that this is a soft tissue sarcoma. Definitive diagnosis would require a biopsy. We discussed that the most definitive treatment for a soft tissue sarcoma on the limb would be amputation, additional options would include definitive radiation to gross disease (control rates of approximately one year), possible chemotherapy to slow tumor growth (which works in approximately 40% of cases and lasts a few months) and metronomic chemotherapy (low dose chemotherapy long term – studies on response are ongoing). We discussed that the concerns for removing the limb are based on concern for what is causing the arrythmia. As the echocardiogram is normal, an abdominal ultrasound would be recommended to rule out abdominal disease that could cause this (ie splenic disease). We would recommend another ECG prior to surgery and discussion with a cardiologist as highest probable causes of the arrhythmia and to determine the safest things we can do anesthetically to ensure that Misty does well at her time of surgery if this is what you decide to move forward with. Please call if you have any questions regarding Misty.



2 Comments »

15

   rica55

March 31, 2014 @ 7:18 pm   Reply

Hello Misty and Family!
What type of sarcoma are you dealing with and how old is Misty? My Jill (also a kitty) is now 15 months post amputation for osteosarcoma. She is now 9, she was 8 when her leg was amputated, so on the “younger” side. She gets along terrificly on three legs.
Let me know if you have any questions at all- please come by the chat room if you get a chance, there are usually a few of us in there, particularly in the evenings.
xoxo,
Erica & Jill

    22

       ddmckenna

    April 1, 2014 @ 4:10 pm   Reply

    Oh, yes, I’ve read about Jill! She is beautiful, and was one of the inspirations for me while I was figuring out what to do with Misty, thank you so much for documenting her journey for the rest of us!

    Misty’s biopsy said “Peripheral nerve sheath tumor with atypical fibroblasts.” I don’t know too much about it yet, I plan on asking questions to my vet when I bring Misty in to have the sutures removed in a week and a half. And after that I will also send the report to my oncologist and then talk with her about it. My vet says the report means that we don’t have to worry about the cancer coming back, and that is the main thing I care about right now, and I will be making sure that I am understanding correctly that this is the case when I talk to my vet and the oncologist.

    I am not 100% sure of Misty’s age, I think she was born in either 2000 or 2001, so 12 or 13 (her birthday is estimated to be in May, I got her in July – based on her age of 8 weeks I chose May 20. I wish I remembered the year as well as the month and day). My vet’s records say 1999 but I don’t think that is right because I got her after I was done with college, which was May 2000. If I could find the records of her spaying that would settle it for sure – she was spayed the same year she was born – I had to do it within a certain amount of time in order to get the discount which was what some of the money we paid to adopt her was for.

RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI

Leave a comment

XHTML: You can use these tags: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>