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The latest on Tynchre
Jun. 14th, 2011 11:42 amSo here I am in the unenviable position of determining how much money my cat's life is worth to me.
Pursuant to Tynchre's GP appointment at Lynn Animal hospital last week, I took him yesterday to 'Dogs & Cats Veterinary Referral' in Bowie, where we had a consultation with Dr. Simmerson, an IM doc specializing in oncology, and had some diagnostics done. An ultrasound showed probable spleen involvement with the mast cell cancer, and subsequent spleen aspirate confirmed there are more mast cells present than are normal, though the count isn't wildly high—i.e., his spleen is NOT one big tumor like his head is rapidly becoming.
So this morning I went back to Dogs & Cats to consult with the surgeon who also examined Tynchre yesterday. T is definitely an outlier in terms of the aggressiveness of this cancer. Dr. Freed at Lynn AH had predicted the tumor(s) in and around his left ear are located such that a clean margin will be difficult or impossible to achieve. Dr. Austin, the surgeon, confirmed she would almost certainly not be able to remove all the mast cell growth. However, she spelled out some options:
One, radical surgery to remove as much tumor as possible from Tynchre's head, plus splenectomy, plus irradiation of the cranial excision site, plus a course of chemo. The head surgery would take the left ear completely off as well as most of the ear canal; he would lose all or most of his hearing on that side. Even beyond the startling earlessness, he would look funky in that skin would be pulled from elsewhere to cover the area of excision. His neck fur, e.g., would be his side-of-the-head fur: different color, different texture. Facial structure itself would not be compromised. Anyway, that's just the cosmetics of it, and not really an issue if we're talking full remission.
Unfortunately and as I expected, there's just no guarantee of that. His chances are no doubt better with this most highly aggressive course of treatment, but—e.g., if the disease doesn't respond well to the chemo—it could be right back to where we were 6 months or a year from now.
Price tag for this option: roughly $10,000 over the course of a year.
Second option: start with chemo and see whether and how well it works. Dr. Austin reiterated Dr. Simmerson's message from yesterday: reaction to chemo of mast cell disease in different patients varies wildly: in some case the response is profound; in others, negligible. So it might be worthwhile to see how this disease reacts before attempting more radical and costlier remedies. Price tag: $278 per treatment for eight treatments.
Lastly, for the no-treatment price tag of $0.00, Dr. Austin predicted 2 to 3 months of life for Tynchre.
I opted for the chemo. Tynchre goes in Thursday morning for his first treatment.
I'm kind of a wreck.
Pursuant to Tynchre's GP appointment at Lynn Animal hospital last week, I took him yesterday to 'Dogs & Cats Veterinary Referral' in Bowie, where we had a consultation with Dr. Simmerson, an IM doc specializing in oncology, and had some diagnostics done. An ultrasound showed probable spleen involvement with the mast cell cancer, and subsequent spleen aspirate confirmed there are more mast cells present than are normal, though the count isn't wildly high—i.e., his spleen is NOT one big tumor like his head is rapidly becoming.
So this morning I went back to Dogs & Cats to consult with the surgeon who also examined Tynchre yesterday. T is definitely an outlier in terms of the aggressiveness of this cancer. Dr. Freed at Lynn AH had predicted the tumor(s) in and around his left ear are located such that a clean margin will be difficult or impossible to achieve. Dr. Austin, the surgeon, confirmed she would almost certainly not be able to remove all the mast cell growth. However, she spelled out some options:
One, radical surgery to remove as much tumor as possible from Tynchre's head, plus splenectomy, plus irradiation of the cranial excision site, plus a course of chemo. The head surgery would take the left ear completely off as well as most of the ear canal; he would lose all or most of his hearing on that side. Even beyond the startling earlessness, he would look funky in that skin would be pulled from elsewhere to cover the area of excision. His neck fur, e.g., would be his side-of-the-head fur: different color, different texture. Facial structure itself would not be compromised. Anyway, that's just the cosmetics of it, and not really an issue if we're talking full remission.
Unfortunately and as I expected, there's just no guarantee of that. His chances are no doubt better with this most highly aggressive course of treatment, but—e.g., if the disease doesn't respond well to the chemo—it could be right back to where we were 6 months or a year from now.
Price tag for this option: roughly $10,000 over the course of a year.
Second option: start with chemo and see whether and how well it works. Dr. Austin reiterated Dr. Simmerson's message from yesterday: reaction to chemo of mast cell disease in different patients varies wildly: in some case the response is profound; in others, negligible. So it might be worthwhile to see how this disease reacts before attempting more radical and costlier remedies. Price tag: $278 per treatment for eight treatments.
Lastly, for the no-treatment price tag of $0.00, Dr. Austin predicted 2 to 3 months of life for Tynchre.
I opted for the chemo. Tynchre goes in Thursday morning for his first treatment.
I'm kind of a wreck.
