Jill's Journey

Meet Jill:

I guess we will start at the beginning, I will try not to make this too long!  Jill found her way to my apartment in October 2004.  At that time, I had just 1 two-year-old Kitty named Jack (this is your “Ah-ha that’s why someone would name a cat Jill” moment).  Jack began tearing out his fur on his two front legs, so I brought him to the vet, thinking he must have some sort of allergy.  Well, no.  The vet says, Jack is anxious, loney and depressed – he needs a girlfriend.

Say what?  Ok…..can’t I just get him a blow-up Kitty?

No? OK….on the hunt I go for a new baby – not too happy about this as I live in a small studio apartment in NYC and work a pretty busy job.  But it was the best thing that ever happened, because I found my Jill.  A friend of my mother’s was fostering this little one who was found at 2 days old in someone’s driveway all alone and abandoned (life 1 of 9, check!).  She fostered the little one and handraised her, and then Jill found her way to my (and Jack’s) life. I should mention, Jack stopped tearing out his fur the moment I brought her home….

8 Years later

Jack and Jill are living blissfully happy together in my little apartment now for 8 years.  This past June, I notice a large, ulcerous mass on my little Jill’s nail/paw and her nail had completely fallen out.  My parents puppy had just been to visit, and they were playing a lot, so I figured they mus have really gotten into it one day when I was at work.  Off we go to the vet…

The vet first does a needle aspirate and an xray.  Upon looking at the x-ray, we know right away, the toe needs to be amputated, the bone is basically destroyed in her toe.  I am devastated.  What is going on?  She is only 7 years old (at this point, she is now 8)………….We schedule the toe amputation and he sends the aspirate away for testing and we’ll go from there.  He calls me with the results of the aspirate that it is defintely some type of tumor, but we wont know until biopsy….

OK, don’t panic right? Yeah…

Jilly’s toe comes off and what a trooper she is about the whole thing.  The surgery was very simple and she came home that night and it was like nothing ever happened.  I was very pleased.  Her lungs looked great (which they x-rayed before the surgery) and all her blood work a-okay.  Here she is rockin’ her purple cast post-toe amputation:

OK, so I feel better now…..and then I don’t.  A few days post-surgery, the biopsy results come back.  Osteosarcoma.  Huh? What? In a cat’s toe? (that’s my vet, not me….)  They’ve never seen this before…off we go to the oncologist.  Here things go a little haywhire with different pathologists seeing different things, but the final result really was, the margins were so good everyone agrees that we dodged a bullet here.  yay!  She is good to go.

OK, so I feel better now…….and then I don’t.  It is now 6 months later.  I come home from work one night and Jill jumps right up on the couch to get her belly rubbed.  And then I feel it.  Right behind her knee (on the same leg as the toe tumor).  A lump.  I know it when I feel it.  It’s back.  Called the vet in a panic to set up an appointment ASAP and she can see us the next day.  So, here we go.  Vet does some x-rays, and another needle aspirate.  Upon looking at the x-rays she says “great, her bones look awesome, the exact location where the cancer was looks great, no eating away at the bone anywhere near where the cancer was…..”  Let’s just look at the results of this aspirate and see what we get, it might just be a cyst….

OK, so I feel better now…..and then I don’t.  Aspirate comes back.  It’s some type of sarcoma. (this was 3 nights ago)

So here we are, present day.  The vet has consulted with a few oncologists (including Jill’s original one).  Everyone agrees that “this is so puzzling!”  “Never seen osteosarcoma on a cat’s toe!” “This should be studied in a journal”….ok…so can we do it for free then 🙂  We don’t know what this new lump is – it’s odd that her bones look great, but this new lump has appeared, but we all made the decision together that the best course of action is to amputate her leg now instead of doing a biopsy first to see what the new lump is.  She will then have to go through a few rounds of chemotherapy. (her lungs have been re-x-rayed btw and look clear)

Her surgery is scheduled for one week from today (12/12).  I am terrified, but I know she is such a trooper and will bounce back.  After reading all these postings and a big shout out to Fang’s blog, I have found a lot of reassurance that I am making the right decision.  I am hoping that this blog will help me cope as I really have no idea what to expect.  I am scared to get my hopes up that she will be just fine and my “OK, so I feel better now’s…” will never last.

That’s pretty much it for now – I just have some preparing to do! and lots of hugs to give her every night (poor Jack is going to feel so neglected…)  I thought I would leave you with some more pictures of Jill for now so you can get a better sense of her personality 🙂

xoxo-

Erica & Jill

And here is a video of my baby girl just a few hours after her toe amputation.  She just HATES the E-Collar, but for Jill, a belly rub makes ANYTHING better.