After Treatment

Wow, it’s been quite a while since I’ve updated.

We’ve been mostly focused on Blackjack’s treatment for cancer these last few weeks. Two weeks ago we took him in on Wednesday for his CT scan (a.k.a. CAT scan – heh-heh), and then Thursday was his first radiation treatment. The night before each treatment we had to take away the cats’ food when we went to bed. So Debbi and I each woke up to starving, ravenous, whining cats the next morning. It was especially hard for me at times since I then had to bundle Blackjack into his carrier, then feed Newton and Roulette, and then take him out the door while they were eating. Poor kitty!

I dropped him off each morning around 9, giving the technician an update on how he was doing. Then I headed to work, and Debbi picked him up at the end of the day. I understand he was knocked out for the first treatment, but then merely sedated for the later ones. I’m not sure how that worked, but he is a pretty mellow kitty.

He had Thursday and Friday treatments, and then Monday-Wednesday-Friday the next week. There was one more treatment planned for this past Monday, but it was cancelled because he was starting to get some blistering in his mouth and throat, since the mass is behind his throat.

Since then he has been getting a steroid pill twice a day, and a different pill and a liquid rinse in his mouth three times a day each (the liquid rinse contains Maalox as one ingredient). Unlike Newton, who loves pill pockets for his daily pill, Blackjack isn’t really interested, so we have to pill him the old-fashioned way. It’s getting old pretty quickly.

The vet said after treatment that Blackjack might get worse before he gets better. He has been low on energy and been lying around a lot, and harder to convince to play with us. We have a sense that he’s turning the corner, but it’s hard to tell. Especially since all the medications I think make him unhappy.

We have a follow-up appointment tomorrow, where we will hopefully find out if the radiation put the cancer into remission, and whether we have to keep giving him all the meds. Plus whether they want to do a round of chemotherapy with him, which I’m sure will be equally disturbing to all of us.

But most I just hope the treatment works and that he’ll have several more happy years with us.