Knowning When to Let Go

I took Sam for another sonogram yesterday. It was done at a place called Southpaws (where the scan on Saturday was done). It is a wonderful facility. The doctor who did the scan was great. She was very straight forward with the news she gave me. The news is not good.

She is fairly certain that Sam has cancer. She couldn’t exactly find where it is but everything pointed to the fact that he has cancer. She extracted fluid from in and around his lungs. Under normal circumstance the lung should re-inflate. But that is not what is happening with Sam. As the vet described it, the lung is collapsed in some way with some sort of a mass. The bottom line not good news. Yes you could go in and operate and try and fix the problem but to what end. Sam couldn’t stand being at the vet’s last year when he had the problem with his kidney. That was only four days. An operation like this it would probably be a couple of weeks.

Then there is of course the problem with his kidneys. Even if the surgery was some how successful. The anesthesia used could ruin his kidneys. So there will be no surgery.

The vet game him a shot of steroids. She said that might stimulate his appetite and prevent some of the fluid from coming back. I was also given an applicator to use to give him more steroids. You wipe the medicine on the inner flap of his ear. When we got back, Sam did eat some food. He ate some lunch meat. It was the only thing that he would touch. That is not going to sustain him.

The thing is I can tell he is not feeling well. Even his purr doesn’t sound right. It takes him a long time to relax into the rolled up ball that cats sleep in. His breathing when he finally gets into that position is not slow as it should be but forced and faster than usual. I watched on and off for 20 minutes on Monday night as he tried to get comfortable on the couch. It is obvious he is not doing well. I will say he seemed a little better last night but not much.

This is my plan. I’m going to see if the steroids help him feel a little better and see if he eats some food. It is supposed to get a little warmer this weekend and be sunny. I’d like to let him out into the backyard and let him enjoy rolling around in the grass and dust and taking in some sun.

I owe him that much.