August 15, 2001

Sometime back in the early spring, the landlords did a crapload of work on the roof of our building. The workers, unknown to us until we arrived home from work, parked their dumpster directly outside our open bedroom window. This allowed all sorts of roof bits to filter through the screen and across the window sill, where the cats enjoy sitting and watching the world go by. Not long after the roof work was completed, Finnegan began to sneeze. At first it was once or twice a day, but gradually advanced into several sneezing fits a day.

Thinking he might have roof bits up his nose, we took him to the vet. The vet, Dr. McClure, examined him and prescribed Prednisone and an antibiotic, in case he had an infection up there. After a few weeks on this medication, Finnegan appeared to be better. Last month, we began to find little splats of blood here and there. Not sure of the source, we examined all the cats, finding nothing. It wasn't until a few days later that Finnegan had a sneezing fit on the kitchen table while we were sitting there and a few blood drops flew from his left nostril. Immediate concern set in. We had another visit to Dr. McClure, who suggested we have Finnegan checked out more thoroughly by another vet, Dr. Norris, who had the tools necessary for such an examination.

2 weeks ago Finnegan spent a couple of days with Dr. Norris. He was x-rayed, given a full head CT (the cat scan jokes flew left and right around here) and a biopsy was scoped out of his nose. By the Friday of that week, we were told the bad news. Finnegan has a tumour in his nasal cavity. The biopsy has been sent to a lab in Saskatchewan to determine the form of cancer it is - carcinoma or lymphoma. We're still waiting to hear back on that one, but Dr. Norris has a gut feeling Finnegan's tumour is a lymphoma.

Treating lymphoma is easier than carcinoma; chemotherapy has a good track record on putting it into remission, but a poor record on keeping it there. Also, extended chemotherapy can lead to other health problems. Carcinoma is generally treated with radiation therapy, with limited results. So here we sit, waiting to hear from the lab out west and hoping for a particular form of cancer. Who would have ever thought in their life that they would be hoping for any form of cancer to be the diagnosis? Not I, said the fly. In the meantime, we've been giving Finnegan a daily dose of Prednisone for preventative measures.

I put a feeler out on ThreeWayAction asking if anyone has had a similar experience with their cat. I was very pleased to get a response about a promising drug therapy called Low Dose Naltrexone. It turns out the father of the person who replied to me discovered the treatment and even fashioned a kitty sized dosage for my replier's cat who was suffering from a tumour. After doing some online research, I've found the drug is approved by Health Canada. When we next visit Dr. McClure, we are going to bring this treatment option up in conversation. I'm all for trying it, given the results I've read online.

Meanwhile, Finnegan remains his usual Mr. Schmoo (my latest nickname for him) self, demanding to go outside on a nightly basis, getting his snuggles in whenever possible, grabbing my arm to ask for food when I eat dinner; all the things that make him who is his. He has an advantage, I think, being a cat. He has no comprehension of what the phrase "you have cancer" means, so he has no psychological battle to fight as a result; no demons to grapple, that sort of thing.

Here's to him...