There cannot be a crisis next week. My schedule is already full. - Henry Kissinger

Me with Toby and Mr. Creme on the day they
were going to go to their new home
They were 8 weeks old
5/19/00

I’m still putting things away from the trip. Yesterday I was going through my store coupon wallet to pull out expired coupons and add the new ones I had clipped. There were lots of expired ones.

The last time I used the coupons were a few days before leaving on our RV trip, which was May 10. I had shopped at the Navy Commissary. Can you imagine my surprise to find my “lost” military I.D. card in with my store coupons? I would never have thought to look for it there. Now I have a back up in case I lose the new one I got the other day.

We have requested a copy of the medical report on Toby, which his surgeon, Dr. Aiken, will write up. In the meantime, we had a couple of questions about Toby’s condition, etc.

Yesterday Charlie called VSH and left a voice message for Dr. Aiken to call us back. In less than an hour, we received the call back from him.

We have wondered if Toby's polyneuropathy (his back leg weakness) could in any way have been related to the tumor in Toby's lungs. Dr. Aiken confirmed what Dr. McClemmons had said, which is that there was no link between the two.

We also wanted to know as much as we could about the tumor. Both Chelsi and Taz died of cancer, and Toby became the third pet of ours to die from cancer. Grady also passed away unexpectedly with no symptoms and we regret not having a post-mortem done to try to determine the cause. So we wanted to know as much as we could about Toby.

Dr. Aiken described the tumor as a primary lung tumor in the right lobe of the lung. Such tumors are generally slow growing. The tumor extended much farther up the airway than usual and pretty much filled the right lobe. In addition, there was fluid in the body cavity which was pressing against Toby's left lung.

Since the tumor was slow growing, we thought we should have seen signs that Toby was having trouble even before we left on our trip, May 10. The Dr. said that it was common to find what he called "silent tumors" in the lungs during exams for which there were no symptoms. Cats compensate quite easily and can live with only half a lung with no problems, and given that Toby was mostly sedentary because of the polyneuropathy, he likely rarely exerted himself so much that his reduced lung capacity would have been noticed. The labored breathing symptoms which finally became evident seemed to be a result of the still growing tumor and the more rapid fluid accumulation which began restricting Toby's good left lung.

Dr. Aiken did not do a biopsy on the tumor since the results would not have changed the treatment, but he said that there was no question it was a cancerous growth. When he called us during surgery, he said that he could still remove the mass, but that he could not ensure that he could remove 100% of it, making it almost certain that the tumor would return. Toby’s right lung was collapsed and no longer functional. The Dr.'s prognosis was that should Toby survive the surgery (15% mortality rate) he would have only his left lung, and would need cancer treatment should the tumor return. Patients (even human patients) had a 5% survivability rate in those circumstances.

I received the full medical report via email this morning. This information had also been forwarded to Toby’s primary veterinarian, Dr. McClemmons.

Yesterday I also talked to Dr. McClemmons to get the results of the blood test she ran on Toby last Friday afternoon. I was just curious to see if he had any other problems. The blood test checked out fine. If we hadn’t been looking for something in his chest and took the X-rays, we would never think anything was wrong with him.

Last January, before Toby turned 11 in March, I took him in for a “senior” blood panel. He was having no symptoms of illness, I just wanted to make sure his organs were all functioning well and no diabetes, etc. He was over weight and also had history of urinary tract blockage. He was on a special diet for that. That blood panel showed that he was a very healthy, (almost) 11 year old, senior cat. So, you never know.

Oh, and yesterday morning when I turned on my garbage disposal, it just buzzed. It had done that a couple of days ago and then I pushed the reset button. It started working again. This time, the reset button didn’t work, so I called our plumber.

When he came out he took a “special” tool and manually turned the blades in the disposal. Then he asked if I had ever heard of the "ice treatment". (I've heard of the "cold shoulder") Puzzled, I said no. He wanted some ice to put into the disposal. When the disposal was full of ice, he turned it on. It made a huge racket, but apparently the ice was sharpening the blades.

We had been gone for about 6 weeks and the disposal had not been used during that time. Normally, I use it at least once a day. The plumber said that a disposal will freeze up if it’s not used (I'm sure no pun was intended). I didn’t know that, but then, I really use my disposal. He left the “special” tool with us to use if it happened again.

Also he suggested the “ice treatment” every couple of weeks. Our refrigerator doesn’t have an ice maker, so I’d better start keeping plenty of ice trays in the freezer!

More later.....