Maxx update

Well, I'll get right to the bottom line. I've spent the last two days consulting with Maxx's current and new oncologists, as well as the two excellent general care veterinarians who have been treating him for the past year and a half.

The consensus of everyone is that the experimental treatment isn't appropriate for Maxx. The treatment is best for small tumors that are localized, and no bigger than 5 centimeters. Maxx's tumor is too big, to spread out, and involves too much tissue. The new oncologist would have taken a more traditional approach, using radiation combined with chemotherapy mainly as a palliative measure. Both oncologists agree that radiation in Maxx's case would probably be either debilitating or fatal.

He was very clear. In the best cases, cats with this cancer, who have the very best chance, only have a 30% survival rate at one year. Maxx's cancer is very advanced. When he was in the hospital last week, the emergency vet did xrays of his skull- it showed that the tumor has gone into his throat, and has done significant damage to his jaw bone.

We could attempt to try these measures, but they would likely destroy what's left of his quality of life. The radiation would probably result in him getting a feeding tube. For cancer in the jaw, vets frequently remove a portion of the jaw, which not only disfigures the cat, but can cause significant other side effects. And the survival rate is only about 40%.

There just aren't any good options left for him at this point. After a lot of soul searching, I've decided not to subject Maxx to a lot of painful treatments that have little chance of helping him.

He deserves to spend the rest of his life in dignity and comfort, eating delicious paté and playing with delightful toys. And that's what he's going to do.

I know the community would like there to be a miracle for him and in some way I feel like I'm letting you down. But I have to do what's right for my beloved boy. Condemning him to spending his last months to a regime of feeding tubes and painful treatments just doesn't seem like the right thing.

For today, we've switched him over to a fentanyl patch so that his pain relief will be constant. It seems to be making him feel rather frisky, which is a nice side effect. In any event, he's been eating fairly well the past couple days, which is a very good thing.

I want to thank everyone again for all of the love and support you've given to Maxx and me over the past several months. Honestly, I don't know what I would have done without you.