Well, the news is what we expected. The lump removed was indeed vaccine-associated sarcoma. So now we’re left with having to decide our next plan of attack. Our wonderful veterinarian Rachel has been doing a lot of work contacting various oncologists in the region. Instead of waiting to see if another lump appears, many of the doctors’ recommendations are for a series of radiation and chemotherapy treatments as well as an amputation of the leg. Rachel has also given us the number of another doctor here in the suburbs that instead suggests having an MRI performed before making that next step. If the cancer has spread, that doctor would conduct twenty daily treatments that would more than likely make Eva a resident at that vet’s for almost a month. I’m not sure what would be more traumatic for Eva: 1) no longer having a back leg or 2) being away from us for twenty days while being treated.
I should mention that we haven’t called these doctors yet, so we don’t know all the details. I think we need the weekend to let it all settle in for us. For awhile, it seemed like the logical next approach would be to wait to see if the tumor returned before making another decision. One of the oncologists said that if another lump appeared, it would appear within 80 days. Also, Rachel mentions a cat that also had a tumor removed at their vet and continued to live for 5 years without the tumor returning. If we do wait and the tumor comes back, the effectiveness of a treatment would all be determined on the aggressiveness of the cancer. So I’m left with a lot of decisions to make in order to save Eva Cat’s life. It doesn’t help that Eva looks so healthy on the outside.
So that this post doesn’t end on such a depressive note, Eva had me and Apryl cracking up the other day. When I got back home from a shoot, I found that Eva had eaten all her food in her bowl and was still hungry. So she ate a hole in the thick plastic bag of her new food. The funny part is that she also knocked over the bag—which I’m assuming is what flung the clip (like those used for potato chip bags) across the room—and then proceeded to drag this 5lb bag of food (with her lampshade on, mind you) into the middle of the kitchen floor so that she could have a little snack before I got home. Amazingly, she didn’t make a mess.
Another Eva relaxin’ moment.