Dearest loved ones, it's been a week. It's amazing how much your life can do a complete 180 in the space of six or seven days. For example, this time last week I was ironing my Lilly Pulitzer Easter dress to wear to church services on Easter Sunday, had made reservations at Stoney River for brunch after church, and contemplating who in the NCAA would wind up in the Final Four men's NCAA tournament taking place here in Hotlanta. Well, on Monday, our oldest cat Romeo, started having all sorts of digestive problems. By Tuesday I knew something was utterly not right with him so I took him to our vet hospital. Initially, we thought maybe a urinary tract infection or perhaps he ate something and had an obstruction in his intestines. He was started on fluids, antibiotics, etc. On Thursday his blood work came back noprmal with one elevated liver enzyme. The vet advised taking some xrays to make sure there was nothing obstructing his bowels. She found a shadow that appeared to be a swollen, distended area in between his liver and pancreas. We then opted to have a sonogram done and then on Friday we received a call to come by the vet hospital and have a chat about the results of the sonogram. It's never good news when this happens so I called Brewster who was at the office testing integrated circuits and we both dropped what we were doing to get to the vet. By 6 p.m. we found ourselves looking at a long, L shaped white tumor sitting in between Romeo's liver and pancreas. The tumor is pressing his intestines so much that the little guy can't pass any stool. Worse, the vet thinks the tumor is probably malignant, but to be sure, she did a fine needle biopsy of the tumor while Romeo was sedated for the ultrasound. We get the results on Monday. If the tumor is somehow miraculously benign, we could have a specialist potentially move the portion of the tumor impeding the intestinal tract; if the tumor is malignant, there's really nothing more to do except bring him home because he really would only have a month to live according to the vet.
I swear sometimes I feel like cancer has cursed my family. I'm serious. My dad has been through rare lymphoma twice and endured a stem cell transplant. My mom has had surgery and thirty rounds of radiation for breast cancer. I was diagnosed with basal cell carcinoma skin cancer on my forearm which had to be burned off and then lasered. (My family is unique. Trust me, in this I know; I just wish someone would publish my book The Courage Chronicles: A Memoir so everyone could benefit from all that we have experience and learned. You would be surprised at the number of people who ask me what I'm writing about or are in crisis themselves and want to know what my advice is or how my family handled all the crisis with which we've been blessed. Romeo is a part of our family too and this is the first time we've had a cat develop a tumor. This too shall be a learning experience for me of this I am sure. I just hope the little guy surprises everybody and is found to have a benign tumor that can be removed so he can share our lives for many years to come.
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