Sidney's Story
by Angie
Sidney was diagnosed on March 8, 2005 at 12.6 years. For approximately one year he had diarrhea, then the last couple of months he began vomiting and lost three pounds. During this time we attributed it to IBD & were trying different treatments. After several tests, endoscopy was performed which provided a definitive diagnosis of Lymphocytic lymphoma. Sidney’s care was transferred to the Oncology department and he was started on the Fondacaro protocol of Leukeran (4mg; 4 days on, 21 off) & Prednisone (10mg daily). He went into remission immediately.
Unfortunately, one month later, he was diagnosed with a form of Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy (no correlation to the cancer). He was then put on Amlodipine (1.25mg) and Aspirin (81mg). To introduce Aspirin, we had to wean him down from his dose of Pred which pulled him out of remission. However, another induction of Leukeran, put him back into remission.
Our biggest complication has been low neutrophil counts. We are currently working on getting a schedule that will work with his heart meds as well as keep him in remission, all while allowing enough time for his neutrophils to rebound. Overall, he has gained weight, looks great, and is a happy cat!
I attribute his success to having an excellent team of veterinarians, very good nutrition, and a dedicated and watchful mom (me). Sidney has gone from 10.2 lbs at diagnosis to 13.45 today. He has been on chemo for five months, and although it has been a rollercoaster ride with the addition of a heart condition and pancreatitis, he’s done very, very well and is in remission as of this writing (August 6, 2005).
Updated 12/16/2005 - On December 7, 2005, Sidney lost his fight with lymphoma. He is deeply missed by his loving family and all of his friends on the yahoo group.
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Sidney
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