Health Update and info about my treatment

This blog is supposed to be fun, but it also was meant as something of a resource for any other cats or beans dealing with feline lymphoma. Obviously you should speak with your betternarian as lymphoma varies greatly depending on the cat and the type, but here's what I go through every day....

As for my health, I am still eating pretty decent. Mom would like to see me eating a bit more, but I seem to be eating enough anyway and I'm very snuggly lately, she likes that! I slept on Daddy's pillow last night!

One thing I promised you guys was a description of my treatment plan. I am on the Madison Wisconsin Protocol (MadWis, for short). This is the same protocol that put Stormieinto remission for over a year! I sure hope I can stay in remission that long! I have large cell lymphoma, just like Stormie, but mine wasn't in my tummy. It was in my kidneys, spleen, and lymph nodes near my neck/chin.

Since I'm on the same protocol as Stormie, my medicines are almost identical to what she took, but most cats get slightly modified versions of the protocol, tailored for each cat. My first ever chemo drug was El-Spar (L-Asparaginase, but we like to call it El-Asparagus). Then, I started a rotation of Vincristine, Cytoxan, Vincristine again, and then Doxorubicin. I got one drug each week, in that order, then a week off after the DOxorubicin. This cycle repeated twice. Now, I will be repeating that cycle two MORE times, but these drugs will be one drug every OTHER week. And then I guess I am done. Or maybe I take some sort of maintenance drug. Not sure yet, but the paper says that I will be taking one drug every other week til my protocol is up, so that's all we know. At that point I will be about 7 months since diagnosis, which will be right at the median survival time I was quoted.

I also take a steroid, Prednisolone (this is the same thing as Prednisone, only formulated better for cat absorbtion). I used to take it twice a day, now I take it once a day. Mom thinks when I was taking it twice a day it might been making me a bit clutzy. She was glad when it was time to lower my dose that the clutziness cleared right up.

I take Reglan (Metacloparamide) usually twice a day for nausea. This drug keeps food moving through my tummy so I don't get nauseaus. I almost always take this twice a day, I usually have enough nausea to require this.

If my nausea is bad, I get stabbed with Zofran, once or twice a day. And I also get Pepcid AC, quarter tablet, sometimes twice a day, if I'm not feeling so well. My parents found out that Pill Pockets actually do work for me!

Lastly, I get lysine twice a day for my feline herpesvirus. We use capsules from the vitamin store as it's much cheaper than the feline lysine your betternarian might have, but talk to them first about this of course.

Mommy will be helping me make some links to the feline lymphoma support groups on the right side of my blog later, in case any bean or cat in need stops by.