It Begins
One day, I came home to find Friskie under our bed. She'd thrown up and seemed off. She wouldn't come out from under the bed. I took her in my arms. All of a sudden, she howled and threw up again. She did not drink or eat for twelve hours; huge red flag. X-rays revealed developing stages of pneumonia, most likely due to aspirating vomit, which might have not happened had I not moved her from the bed to the floor when she started to throw up. NEVER move a cat when he/she is throwing up. Though in this case…it saved her life.
We hospitalized her for three days, put her on antibiotics and every night for two weeks we would take her into our bathroom to let her breathe in the foggy after-shower air, patting her on the back to help clear her lungs.
The x-ray … had also revealed an "abnormality" in her lower intestines. They referred me to oncology.
The Diagnosis
On February 2, 2013, my 9 year old Friskie was diagnosed with GI Lymphoma at the VCA West LA Animal Hospital. It easily goes down as one of the saddest days of my life. She had two months to live if we kept her just on prednisone (a steroid)…or 4 months with chemo. We proceeded with the first round of chemo on the spot, not knowing exactly what we were doing yet. The car ride home was like being stuck in a nightmare.
What To Do?
I went home and researched and read EVERYTHING there was to read about Lymphoma down to the cellular level. What more could I do other than fully educate myself? I'm no vet, but I have intuition, so I began turning the wheels on how to potentially reverse the process. It has to be out there, I thought. The Livestrong website was a big resource for me, particularly when it came to diet.
Many wonder if it is humane to administer chemo to a cat or dog. First, I will preface with saying that my boyfriend and I made the decision to take our cues from Friskie. This would ALL be for her, and the second Friskie stopped being Friskie, we would talk. We never intended to prolong her life but rather maintain her quality of life. The dose of chemo administered to cats and dogs is much lower than a human dose proportionally and is sadly not meant to cure. There are rarely any visible side effects. In Friskie's case, it took maybe a year before she starting losing a couple of patches of fur on the side of her belly. Just recently, the VCA began performing its very first bone marrow transplants on dogs with a great survival rate, but it is still a new procedure and currently not an option for cats.
You might be wondering why we couldn't just "extract" the cancer. Well, lymphoma is not a definitive mass. In Friskie's case, she had a 1 cm clump of enlarged tissue in her ileum and multiple large lymph nodes surrounding it.
Holistic Care
I read about holistic remedies as well, and I truly believe that it was because of her holistic care that she lived Three times longer than the average cat lives with GI Lymphoma. In fact, they told us at the VCA that she had been the longest living cat with Lymphoma that they'd had!
First, I changed her diet. I changed Sweetie's diet too, as two weeks after Friskie's diagnosis, Sweetie was diagnosed with Stage 3 Renal Failure and Hyperthyroidism. FML, right? This decision came after reading that one of the main causes of cancer in our pets is believed to be caused by poor diet. Overvaccination and environmental factors are two other factors.
What defines a poor diet? Well, pretty much a diet that is not in line with what their bodies and digestive systems are meant to thrive on, which in a cat's case, is pure, raw protein (and some fruits and veggies!). I've talked about raw food in other posts, so all I'll say here is that I began feeding my girls Bioethics Petfood. They loved it.
Then, I took Friskie to Dr. Palmquist at Centinela Animal Hospital, hands down one of the best vets I've been lucky enough to meet. He performed a muscle test on Friskie and measured her body's response to various supplements, of which he picked the ones her body needed. We gave her Standard Process Cardiac Support as well as Hepatic Support, and Kidney and Heart Glandular Support.
The idea behind holistic support is that we'd be treating her entire body and supporting her organ strength through the chemo process.
I also found a shamanic healer, Olivia Olkowski, who made her a necklace out of pink rhodocrosite and yellow citrine, both meant to aid emotional healing. Hey, when it comes to cancer, there's no harm in trying EVERYTHING.
Chemo
Her oncologists wanted to begin an "aggressive" protocol, so for the first four months, we took her in to get chemo once a week, every Saturday morning, following a normal white blood count. Our oncologist, Trina Hazzah, and her assistant Alma Fosados, are two of the most wonderful human beings on the planet. They fell in love with Friskie…a Calico who would actually fall asleep with the drip in? Unheard of! They are both loving, compassionate women. They talked to us like a friend would. That made ALL the difference.
The chemo Friskie received was cycled every three weeks. One week, she would get Vincristine, the second, Cytoxan, and the third Doxorubicin. The idea behind the various types is that were she on one alone, her body would eventually grow resistant to the one drug very quickly. Additionally, every single night, I would administer 1 mg of chicken flavored Prednisone. I need to mention that had it not been for PetPlan pet insurance, we would've been in the biggest debt of our lives! Each chemo appointment was costing us between $250 and $450. White Blood Count
The challenge we sometimes experienced with the chemo is that Friskie's white blood count would drop dramatically and we would have to forgo chemo, which was worrying, because cancer cells multiply exponentially. This happened maybe 4 times the first few months. We realized that this was expected, since animals who develop cancer are usually immune deficient, and Friskie had always been lethargic. Plus, chemo does not just target the cancer. It targets everything, even the good cells.
So of course I went home and read about how to boost white blood counts in cats. For an entire year, Chuck and I went to the Hollywood Farmers market just to get organic ingredients for a soup I fashioned out of reishi, maitake and shiitake mushrooms, with some kale and spinach. I would add a teaspoon or so into her food. Olivia also recommended a wonderful company based out of Australia. McDowell's Herbal Treatments makes these wonderful tonics for dogs, cats, horses and humans. After a lengthy exchange with one of the owners, she recommended Maritime Pine Bark, a strong antioxidant that would help clear free radicals, and CBQ, for supporting bone marrow and red blood cell production. She would get 5 drops of each in her food twice a day. We would have to time her antioxidants and supplements so she wouldn't get them 2-3 days before and 2-3 days after chemo, because it is believed (and I still don't know that this is true or verified) that antioxidants could potentially "kill" the chemo. So it became a balancing act of sorts. Soon enough, her white blood count stayed consistently normal for the duration of her illness. I also added a daily chlorella tablet, which she loved, and plenty of kitty grass!
After the first 4 months, we started going to chemo every 2 weeks, then once every 3 weeks thereafter. She did wonderfully, and she even looked forward to the car rides! She had energy, she loved her food, and she loved sunning outdoors.
When Chemo Stops Working
In February 2014, I took her in for an ultrasound check-up, and they detected the abnormality once more. She was coming out of remission. We were presented with two different chemo options. One would likely make her very sick, and the second, maybe not so much. We opted with the least aggressive, CeeNu, a bi-weekly pill. However, this pill would cause her white blood to drop dramatically for an extended period of time. And I could never seem to get it back up. I tried Essiac tea, spirulina... We had to forgo chemo several times. In May, she began to lose her appetite. She lost weight. She started sleeping most of the day. I even resorted to feeding her canned gravy foods, of which she'd eat minimal portions. On May 16th, an ultrasound showed that her mass had now grown to 5 cm. We were beginning to lose the battle. Right then, I decided we would let her go the following day. By the way, I know I sound like I'm just stating facts, but it would take entirely a different entry to describe how incredibly hard and beautiful this entire emotional ride was. And I already write really long entries, so please use your imagination.
Saying Goodbye
I had an emergency conversation with our animal communicator, Christine Sang, a wonderful, gifted woman, who helped me get to know my little soul mates earlier that year. Friskie was already leaving, and she was happy and ready to do so, and she wanted to be at home with her family. So we released her at 2:30 pm on Saturday, May 17th from our bedroom balcony. Christine couldn't have been more accurate. When I placed Friskie on her blanket, surrounded by a few special things, she very willingly laid down, even with the two vets around.
I will not end on a sad note, because that is not what Friskie's about. I will share an innocently (now funny) thing that happened during her release. The vets gave Friskie and injection and asked us if we wanted a moment alone with her we said yes. We laid with her and spoke to her and stroked her. She was so very calmly asleep. Two minutes later, I looked at Chuck and said, "Um...She's still breathing." Chuck so very optimistically responds, "Just like Friskie…living longer than expected." But then it got to be a little too long, and Chuck went outside and told the vets that Friskie was still breathing. The vets informed us that they had only administered a tranquilizer. Doh! After they administered the euthanasia, in 10 seconds, she was very gently gone. Friskie lived one year and 5 months post-diagnosis.
I cannot explain how much Friskie did for this family. She was my true soulmate. Chuck and I cried, we laughed, we fought, but most of all, we learned and we grew stronger because of her. Christine had told us, shortly after she was diagnosed, that Friskie was the cogs and wheels of our home. Which she was. She would always make sure everyone was taken care of before she was. She was a Mary Poppins of sorts, she said, coming into the lives of those who needed her the most. And we did. And now I can see why. She was a true embodiment of the purest love and I will forever be grateful for her finding me.
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