Pls Pray for Harry's Successful Lung Surgery Fri Dec 3

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radiologist believes the lung cancer has spread. she can't be positive, so she's recommending aspirates. but it looks like he has two tumors in one lung lobe (left lung) and one on the right lung.
another option besides aspirates is to wait another 6+ months and check again to see if any changes have occurred.
but if there's metastatic disease, surgery will not prolong his life, so it's not worth going thru the pain/trauma of surgery.
this is extremely upsetting news.
i'll be seeing their main oncologist in 45 minutes to try to get a game plan together.
 
(((((((((((((((((( Chris ))))))))))))))))))))))))

oh man, this is so not what I wanted to read. Hoping the rad. is wrong. and the onco comes up w/ something for dear Harry.
 
Chris, I am sorry you received this news. I agree with Cheryl; I hope for some positive words and that the radiologist erred.
You and Harry are in my thoughts.
 
totally wasted my time seeing oncologist. he was a douchebag. wasted my time, gave me no information, kept me waiting, had a cavalier attitude. only saving grace is that he called the surgeon for me and she met with me afterward. we decided to aspirate the known mass in the left lung and a relatively easy to get lesion in the right lung. that should tell us if the cancer metastasized and whether the left lung mass is pleural rather than pulmonary. if it's pleural we absolutely should not operate. if it's pulmonary and we can't determine right lung lesion is a metastasis, we could operate.

according to oncologist cats normally live about 60 days after lung cancer is found so harry has already beat the odds at 9 months after the mass showed up on xray (which his vet never confirmed was a mass but should have then). so clearly this was slow growing and at least worth exploring. but survival for metastatic lung cancer is only 20% as far as we know. according to oncologist there are few studies on it -- maybe only 3 or 4 -- so everything is a crapshoot.

[edited to add: what an a-hole. i found 198+ related articles (have to check biblios for more) on pubmed]
 
dr maretzki (sp), the head of the clinic. i believe he's internal med. your cardiologist might have heard of him. he does consult on cardiology (craig maretzki, U Penn 1990). post grad research in infectious diseases at yale and UC Davis, too.

he was busy today but is around tomorrow so he'd be able to get the aspirates for us. i'm not thrilled because he would not talk to me, per the surgical resident. it's not his case -- it's the surgeon's (dr margo mehl) or the oncologist's (rodriguez, whom i'd never go back to).
 
sorry the onco was such a jerk.

glad you have that surgeon. she's golden.

sending all good wishes for Harry's aspirate tomorrow.

((( Chris and Harry ))))
 
So sorry to see this update, I was hoping that dearest Harry had gotten his surgery and was now recoverying nicely.

This has to be nerve wracking (((((Chris & Harry)))))

We will keep all fingers and paws crossed that you'll have some answers soon and they will be able to help Harry out.

Mel & the fur gang.
 
Best of luck Chris; I am still hoping for good news, or better than expected, on the results for Harry.
 
Chris I agree the aspirate sounds like a reasonable next step. I'm afraid the CT results point to metastasis so surgery isn't going to be curative. Are you in San Francisco proper? I can ask my dog's onco if she knows anyone in your area--she's been an onco for years and knows everyone.
 
yes, i'm in san francisco.
sfvs, the specialists i see, has drs rodriguez and kathy andres, who is new and didn't especially impress me.
was considering going to davis. i have questions about alternative treatments such as IMRT and RFA (radiation/heat) as well.
at 2 hrs away, davis is a bit far, so it would be nicer to find someone more local. i want to maximize harry and my time. he's acting healthy right now and i don't want to screw that up but i want to try something before just giving up. i don't find sfvs acceptable for that. we also need someone who knows more about asthma/respiratory disease because we'll have to work on that as well (sfvs does not have anyone with much experience re that). progression of asthma may actually be causing more of harry's symptoms than the lung mass is.
 
My hopeful, healing thoughts and prayers continue for both you, dearest Chris and your precious brave Harry...

Much love and countless hopeful healing hugs as well,
Deb and Nikki -- and Giz, forever whispering in my heart...
 
Pls Pray 4 Harry's Successful Lung Aspirates Sat Dec 4

thank you. bringing him in for aspirates at 11am pacific time. chief at clinic will do them whenever he can fit harry in so i'm bringing a book and hanging out to save the "boarding" fee.

have a little baby hope left that it'll turn out to be something else but i do need to know more and hope they will give us info we need without hurting my little dude harry. no matter how much time he has left i want him to be happy and as healthy as i can help him be. we still have to manage other health issues like asthma & hyperT, tho hyperT is nicely controlled (T4 2.5 with daily methimazole).

so, good vibes still appreciated. he is such a little doll.
 
Oh man.. I just found this thread, and was hoping to keep reading that he already had his surgery & is home recuperating by now! :-| I really hope the aspirates show that it's nothing, and you guys can still have the surgery.

Even if it has spread, would pred help? It would help with his asthma too right? Bandit's on pred longterm right now for her stomatitis, but it's helping her asthma too, so she doesn't need inhaled meds.. unless the pred stops helping her stomatitis, and I take her off it.
 
harry lung aspirates taken

we just got home. aspirates were taken using ultrasound around 2:30pm, then recovery, then home. he's acting okay. interesting hanging around the clinic on a saturday. lots of dogs and drop ins.

won't have results til wednesday, when the clinic head is back on rotation, but vet's assistant said he got a good amount of samples. he had to do a lot of repositioning to get ahold of some of the samples (right lung). guessing harry will be stoned for a while. gonna hang out with him in the bedroom and hopefully get a good nap in.

yes, steph, harry's on pred. right now just 5mg SID but considering increasing. only trouble is, supposedly eventually pred stops working for them but i think it's a big reason he's been stable for so long despite the mass in the left lung that the vet forgot to tell me about. :roll: he did have an asthma attack at midnight so i had to use the inhaler but i think it's been over a month since the prior attack so he's not getting the inhaler regularly right now.
 
Depending on the location of the tumor, its impact on Harry's comfort, and Harry's stability, surgery might be helpful to debulk the tumor(s) and make him more comfortable. I'd only do it if the tumor was causing symptoms because of its size - ex blocking breathing or swallowing - and Harry wasn't ready to let go.
 
i agree, bj, tho lung surgery is extremely painful and if it won't lengthen his life we are loathe to put him thru it. in my heart, of course, i believe in cutting tumors out. lung cancer is so poorly researched so far because it used to be pretty rare in pets. i don't think they've really had success in anything they've tried. only saving graces that i can see are that the tumor looks well differentiated, and the lobes don't look affected. as far as i can tell, those two things can have a lot to do with a longer survival rate. hopefully the trend will continue rather than speeding up.

harry has had such a happy life since day 1, i want to keep it that way (except for the fact that our vet didn't tell us they'd confirmed the mass in february. that will forever kill me but we can't turn back time). harry's breeders were phenomenal and he was so beautifully socialized he loves everybody. he's a one in a million great guy. i hope we have a lot of time left. there's a lot of work ahead for us.
 
glad to read he is acting ok and not upset from all these vet visits.
will sit on pins and needles until wed biopsy results and keep hoping and praying for the best.

He sounds like such a great guy. (((( Harry ))))

I hope you can get some rest chris.

((( chris )))
 
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