The Oncologist

We met with the Oncologist this morning. Her name is Dr. Endicott.

There were two reasons we couldn’t give Scout any food after midnight was because they might want to get some blood work and food will give a false high level of fat. Also, if they decide they need to do an ultrasound, then he could throw up and aspirate his food when he is under the anesthesia. So every time he goes to see Dr. Endicott, he will have to fast.

Scout was very well behaved at his visit, but the staff did butter him up quite a bit, telling him how pretty and handsome he was. I warned them, but he played it cool. He’s one of those “Revenge is a dish best served cold” kind of cats.

Dr. Endicott said that Scout’s cancer was actually the best kind to have in that it is easily treated. It is called small cell lymphoma, and when they did the endoscope and biopsy, they found that he had too many lymphocytes and white blood cells, and that his body isn’t clearing them out like it’s supposed to. The plan is to clear out the tumor cells with the chemo pill he gets twice weekly. They will monitor his weight, white blood cell count, and platelet count, so he will have to go in once a month. If things stay the same, he won’t have to change his meds or anything. Dr. Endicott said that Scout might have to go on the hypoallergenic diet later, if his intestines stay real inflamed, but since he is doing fine now and eating, she said not to mess with his diet.

If Scout starts losing weight or gaining too much or his blood work starts to look bad, she will adjust his medicine. She said that with the low dose of chemo he is on, it is best to catch fluctuations early and make an adjustment, otherwise, it might take up to six weeks for him to recover from the bad spell. They will just check his weight and WBC, and use the ultrasound if he’s not doing well. They didn’t take any blood today because we just had all that blood work done last week. She weighed Scout, and his weight was up to 11.94 pounds, which means he gained almost a pound in the past week!!! Yay! Now he’s only got two more to catch up to where he was before he got sick. We have to take him to their clinic in to be weighed because they like to weigh them on the same scale, and different scales can have variations of ounces, and ounces are very important in cats.

I like Dr. Endicott. She seems very positive and energetic. She even said that if we have any questions, we can email her, and she will email us her reports and what symptoms we need to look for and be cautious about. Scout’s next visit is a month from today, when they will weigh him and probably take a blood sample and re-fill his meds.

When we got home, it was time for everyone to get whatever medicines they were due, and to also finally eat! PJ couldn’t eat, because Scout couldn’t eat, and Scout is alpha cat and would push PJ away from his food. We didn’t have time to feed the dogs before we left, so they were pretty hungry, too. Scout was pretty ornery. I guess he had bottled it all in for his vet visit. But after his meds, he got to eat, and he ate A BUNCH! Katy did a good job with her breakfast as well. She threw up a little bit while I was getting her breakfast ready (I have to crush her medicine and mix it up in the food), but I think that was because she was really excited and ready to eat. She didn’t throw up any food afterward, so that was good.

So an hour later, I had to give Scout his (what we call) hour-after pill. It is an antibiotic that he gets, at the earliest, an hour after his other meds. He REALLY hates this one. We wrestled. He growled and hissed. I got the pill in his mouth once, but he pushed it out with his tongue. I finally gave up after he somehow managed to flip completely upside-down and started kicking me in the stomach with his hind legs while he boxed my hand with his fore legs. After I gave up, he looked at me like: “Where’s my treat?”

Stupid cat.