julie & punkin (ga)
Very Active Member
yesterday
the nicest place you never wanted to be . . . any idea who the original author of that statement is? it is so true - you guys are the best!
day 2 - it's just after 7am and he's had a 1/2 dose shot of 7.5units. i stirred about 1/2 tsp of baby food into his water bowl so there would be something to capture his attention for his shot. he took it with mental comments that came my way "what is this? this is no FUD! this is water!! but i'll drink it anyway cuz you been starving me!"
punkin has to be there by 8am - it's only perhaps 2 miles away - first on the agenda is the echocardiogram to check his heart. then they will knock him out and position him back in the same position as the CT/mri scans of yesterday. he has a little pick line on his nose and above his eyes that are their sight lines for helping him be exactly in position. the way the radiation works is that they decide based upon yesterday's tests how much total radiation is needed to kill the tumor. they divide that radiation quantity by 3 days (i think that's a fraction), then by the number of beams (those are leaves) and he will have radiation beams coming from all different directions aimed at the tumor. this multi-beamed, multi-day approach has brought the best success.
in all their aiming they try to avoid the other essential areas, like his optic tracks (see, there was another name for it besides optic thingies!)
they'll call us when he's coming round from the anesthetic, probably late afternoon again.
my hope is that if i give enough details that people understand it, there will be that many more of us to identify acro cats when they arrive at FDMB.
marilyn, some things that point at acro - increasing dose when food is appropriate (canned, low-carb) and testing habits are good, signs of growth like bigger feet, wider muzzle, deeper voice, a rattling sound when breathing, later signs include larger stools, forehead or jaw pushed out. some cats don't seem to show much of these signs. in general acro cats are larger older males, but jazzy and ollie are petite girls - so that's not a foolproof symptom. there is a test that measure the growth factor in the blood. it has to be sent o Michigan State University. i can find it for you later or you can look on the acro support group in the stickies to find it. i gotta go get ready to take punkin.
thinking of all of you today and grateful for your support!
the nicest place you never wanted to be . . . any idea who the original author of that statement is? it is so true - you guys are the best!
day 2 - it's just after 7am and he's had a 1/2 dose shot of 7.5units. i stirred about 1/2 tsp of baby food into his water bowl so there would be something to capture his attention for his shot. he took it with mental comments that came my way "what is this? this is no FUD! this is water!! but i'll drink it anyway cuz you been starving me!"
punkin has to be there by 8am - it's only perhaps 2 miles away - first on the agenda is the echocardiogram to check his heart. then they will knock him out and position him back in the same position as the CT/mri scans of yesterday. he has a little pick line on his nose and above his eyes that are their sight lines for helping him be exactly in position. the way the radiation works is that they decide based upon yesterday's tests how much total radiation is needed to kill the tumor. they divide that radiation quantity by 3 days (i think that's a fraction), then by the number of beams (those are leaves) and he will have radiation beams coming from all different directions aimed at the tumor. this multi-beamed, multi-day approach has brought the best success.
in all their aiming they try to avoid the other essential areas, like his optic tracks (see, there was another name for it besides optic thingies!)
they'll call us when he's coming round from the anesthetic, probably late afternoon again.
my hope is that if i give enough details that people understand it, there will be that many more of us to identify acro cats when they arrive at FDMB.
marilyn, some things that point at acro - increasing dose when food is appropriate (canned, low-carb) and testing habits are good, signs of growth like bigger feet, wider muzzle, deeper voice, a rattling sound when breathing, later signs include larger stools, forehead or jaw pushed out. some cats don't seem to show much of these signs. in general acro cats are larger older males, but jazzy and ollie are petite girls - so that's not a foolproof symptom. there is a test that measure the growth factor in the blood. it has to be sent o Michigan State University. i can find it for you later or you can look on the acro support group in the stickies to find it. i gotta go get ready to take punkin.
thinking of all of you today and grateful for your support!
