Cat News . . . and a Phone Call From My Oncologist

I took my cat, Elizabeth, to an orthopedic surgeon vet, today. He couldn't see a tear in the muscle on the x-rays and he felt her leg and definitely found the area that hurts her - it was still swollen. It wasn't the achilles, but another muscle that corresponds to the area of our calf muscle - forgot the name, it was "gastro" something or other. He said that he'd never seen an injury like this before, but it was his opinion that we should wait and see if the injury heals itself. If it isn't better in a couple of weeks, then we might talk about surgery. He based part of his opinion on the fact that she does appear to be better. She's not dragging her foot (the foot would actually bend so that the top of the foot was dragging on the ground) like she was and she is now able to gingerly put some weight on it. I just saw her hop on top of the chair - technically, I'm supposed to keep her from jumping so that she doesn't reinjure that muscle. But I couldn't get to her in time. So, it does seem to be resolving itself and she really wants to go outside.

Whew. It saves me some money.

In other news, after dinner, I got a phone call from Dr. K, my oncologist. He said that he's been getting updates from Dr. H, my plastic surgeon, about my upcoming surgery. Dr. K just wanted to go on record as saying that he thinks it's a bad idea and that it might take a few months for the tissue to heal (since it's been irradiated) and that it'd be better to leave well enough alone. However, as Dr. K said, he is not a surgeon. My understanding from Dr. H is that this kind of reconstruction is actually going to be a good thing because he's bringing in good tissue with its own blood supply - and it's also tissue that's never been radiated - and so I don't think that the wound would take as long to heal.

So, now Dr. K has me questioning the whole thing to some extent. I will proceed with the surgery but will make sure that I broach the whole topic with Dr. H first to make sure my understanding is correct. I asked Dr. K if his concern was with whether or not I'd have a relapse and he said that it wasn't. He was more concerned about having a wound that would take months to heal, especially since I've been dealing with an open skin wound for 9 months already. Granted, it has been almost five months since the tissue expander came out and it's not quite healed yet ... in the end, I don't really think that any one really knows what will happen. My case is somewhat unique. Honestly, I'm more concerned with the potential of a relapse - I know I can deal with an open wound. But it wouldn't be an open wound - it'd have sutures. Sigh . . .

It's always something.