(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Anubis's Cancer Progress [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2023-10-22 Anubis is not doing well with his cancer. According to the vet, he has a massive abdominal tumor that is wrapped around his heart, aorta, and other internal organs. The results of the biopsy are both clear and inconclusive. The vet said that all the cells she extracted were ruptured. This implies that they were very fragile, which means they were abnormal and likely cancerous. It is inconclusive in that the exact type of cancer is unknown. The next steps could be: Repeat the biopsy, but that may be useless as it’s likely the same result would come back. Send Anubis to a specialist, but that would involve a lot of $ and also be inconclusive. CAT scans and MRIs are quite expensive, but they would determine if the mass is positioned to be removed. Exploratory surgery. This would be expensive, and if it turns out to be cancer or otherwise not removable (if done without a CAT scan and MRI), it could lead to Anubis either dying in surgery or being put down to relieve him of suffering in his last days. Surgery or chemotherapy would be very expensive and there’s no guarantee he would not die on the operating table given how all-inclusive the tumor has become wrapped around his vital organs. Just going to get the diagnosis confirmed by vet-oncologists would cost about $2000, and that does not include chemotherapy or surgery. I’ve been giving Anubis some vet-prescribed steroid pills. I have a mortar and pestle and I’ve been grinding the pills and mixing them with some “Deletibles” treats and he’s been gulping them down. But Anubis has not been eating well in the past few days, and yesterday and Saturday he barely ate anything, even turning down the delectables that he loves. Anubis has been hiding under my bed. This is new for him. He sleeps a lot and seems to not be feeling well. That he is not now on my lap purring and rubbing me is a change and alarming. I’m concerned his last days may be coming soon, or he may get better again, but he seems to be slowly declining. The vet says that the final decline could come quickly. I could wake up or come home from work to find his cold body even if he seemed OK when I went to bed or to work. The tumor could impinge on his organs until they can’t function, or he can’t eat. The tumor is full of blood vessels that could burst and he could die in a matter of minutes. I hate to leave Anubis each morning. Sometimes he meows at me sadly when I leave. I’ve stopped teaching Saturday classes in order to have a little more time with him. I keep thinking about what I would do if I had large amounts of money. Could the tumor have been caught earlier and could it have been treated? Anubis is 13 years old, which is old for a cat, but not very old. The average lifespan of a cat is about 16 years, with some living much longer. He is like a 60-year-old human, like me. I’m having flashbacks to the days when Dad was in a coma after botched heart surgery and almost everyone was telling me that Dad is too old to recover from his condition, and yet Dad did survive and lived another 15 years. I keep bouncing around between thinking that I should simply take care of Anubis and love him in his last days and the slim possibility that with aggressive treatment I could have him or years to come. Norman and baby Anubis When Anubis finally passes, I will bury him in the back years with his canine buddy, Norman was my dog when Anubis was a wee kitten. Norman. Norman lived until he was 18, and died a few months after Dad. At the time, I had little time or energy to dig a hole to bury Norman, so I wrapped him in several layers of garbage bags, but I’ve never gotten around to burying him. Now I think I will bury both Norman and Anubis together in the same hole, right next to Norman’s 22-year-old mother, Lindsey. I will probably take a few days off when Anubis dies. I don’t know how I could face the students with this in my mind. If it becomes obvious his end is imminent, I might take time off. Even now as I contemplate the loss of my beautiful kitten, I am having a hard time keeping my emotions together. I will not be doing well on Anubis’s last day. #jtg [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/10/22/2196305/-Anubis-s-Cancer-Progress?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=more_community&pm_medium=web Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/