The biopsy came back. He has intermediate grade intestinal lymphoma.
I have opted out of chemotherapy as I do not want to risk his last days, however many there are, being miserable. And the excellent results with remission I can find online last a whole 6 months at best on average. There are the rare exceptions… but very rare. Very, very rare.
He is an old kitty. I’d be happy to pay for full chemo, but with results like “wow, a whole year if you’re super-duper lucky like in some younger cats!” it’s not worth it to do to him.
Then, there is the kidney issue. We’ve chosen to try and slow the progression with steroids. He can’t even have the one highest effectiveness one as there’s a high likelyhood it would cause his kidneys to shut down. We have to try a lower strength one.
We have a “wait and see” life expectancy, almost certainly under a year, likely under 6 months unless he pulls a super-kitty surprise on us.
It’s not fair.
I don’t mean him passing. I knew that was likely soon, he’s over 16.
I mean he has that little time to live after how horrible the past few months with his bowels have been for him and now experiencing this huge surgery he has to heal from… only to start getting sicker and sicker sometime soon afterwards. He shouldn’t have gone like this. Pixel got sick and we put him down in the course of 2-3 days. Jonesy has been sick and despite best efforts will keep getting sicker as I medicate him until I can tell he just can’t have a decent life anymore.
I know this is so common. Endless people go through it and are going through it right now.
But you know how it is when it’s your own pet. He’s my last family member, the last person who knew me from marriage to now. In two years I’ll have lost all of my family. He’s my best friend. I’ve a close human second, but he’s my best friend. He’s the only person who knows me.
Once he starts to shut down I’ll start giving and selling things off in preparation of life without him.
The words just aren’t there. I put up a lot of words above, but the *right* words just aren’t there.
Filed under: Cats, Daily Life, Jonesy, Relationships Tagged: alone, cancer, cancerous, cat, chemo, chemotherapy, colonectomy, day in the life, death, dying, family, feline, health, intestinal cancer, intestinal lymphoma, jonesy, kitty, life expectancy, loss, love, lymph node, lymphoma, new york, NYC, pet, rumpusparable, steroid, surgery, unhealthy
