Friday, May 04, 2007
Friday Cat Teeth Blogging
I dropped Chico off at the vet for his dental work this morning. I'm waiting to hear if everything went all right, especially since Chico's been sneezing on and off for the past three days, but is otherwise totally fine.
On the way there, my cab driver got pulled over and ticketed for running a red light. I looked for another cab while the cop was writing the ticket, and by the time the cop had finished writing the ticket, I still hadn't gotten another cab so I got back in. I don't know if this will be a bad omen for Chico. I've given up on thinking what will be a good or bad omen for Jim.
The oncologist still thinks he's too sick to be poisoned. Not Chico; Jim. He said that anything harsh enough to temporarily shrink the tumors would be harsh enough to kill him. Meanwhile, his own immune system and the great supportive care he's been getting are causing his own body to slow the effects of the cancer about as well as any available chemo options would right now.
"See, when you die from cancer, it's not the cancer that kills you. The cancer weakens your body and you get pneumonia, and it's the pneumonia that kills you." Good to know.
My sister-in-law asked about a natural remedy she'd heard of, graviola. The oncologist said there was anecdotal evidence about it: "I have patients who've claimed that it's done great things for their immune system," but that he wasn't the one to talk to about complementary therapies. So he referred us to Sloan-Kettering's Integrative Medicine services. We're supposed to have a conference call with a practitioner there tomorrow morning.
I'd put this under the category of "can't hurt; might help." I'd first heard about Co-Q10 seven years ago when a vet had recommended it for Pongo's heart disease. We'd added it to the regimen of a dozen heart pills, vitamins and supplements that we gave him every day. That, and a really expensive pet store cat food, and, oh yeah, being treated like an Egyptian deity, probably extended his prognosis considerably and helped him live to a ripe old age.
So now I'm waiting to hear from the vet, and tomorrow I'll speak to the Integrative Medicine practitioner, and I don't think I left Chico in the cab...I have a distinct memory of a vet tech taking him to the back reassuring me that he'd be fine.
Update, 11:45 AM:
On the way there, my cab driver got pulled over and ticketed for running a red light. I looked for another cab while the cop was writing the ticket, and by the time the cop had finished writing the ticket, I still hadn't gotten another cab so I got back in. I don't know if this will be a bad omen for Chico. I've given up on thinking what will be a good or bad omen for Jim.
The oncologist still thinks he's too sick to be poisoned. Not Chico; Jim. He said that anything harsh enough to temporarily shrink the tumors would be harsh enough to kill him. Meanwhile, his own immune system and the great supportive care he's been getting are causing his own body to slow the effects of the cancer about as well as any available chemo options would right now.
"See, when you die from cancer, it's not the cancer that kills you. The cancer weakens your body and you get pneumonia, and it's the pneumonia that kills you." Good to know.
My sister-in-law asked about a natural remedy she'd heard of, graviola. The oncologist said there was anecdotal evidence about it: "I have patients who've claimed that it's done great things for their immune system," but that he wasn't the one to talk to about complementary therapies. So he referred us to Sloan-Kettering's Integrative Medicine services. We're supposed to have a conference call with a practitioner there tomorrow morning.
I'd put this under the category of "can't hurt; might help." I'd first heard about Co-Q10 seven years ago when a vet had recommended it for Pongo's heart disease. We'd added it to the regimen of a dozen heart pills, vitamins and supplements that we gave him every day. That, and a really expensive pet store cat food, and, oh yeah, being treated like an Egyptian deity, probably extended his prognosis considerably and helped him live to a ripe old age.
So now I'm waiting to hear from the vet, and tomorrow I'll speak to the Integrative Medicine practitioner, and I don't think I left Chico in the cab...I have a distinct memory of a vet tech taking him to the back reassuring me that he'd be fine.
Update, 11:45 AM:
The cat is all riiiiight.
The cat is all riiiiight.
Gotta pick him up on the way home from work.
"Oooh...the colors!"
"Oooh...the colors!"
