Daily Diary Pick and Update

I was really excited to find out I was one of today's Daily Diary Picks on Catster. What a great surprise. Thank you Catster. Thanks to my pals for the pawmails & rosettes in honor of the occasion too. Whoo hoo!

While I am updating my diary I must also include an update on my health. All is going great! The itchies have pretty much stopped now. I have some peach fuzz growing in my bald spots (neck & back). I hope it hurries up as it was in the 20s this morning at my house and I need to keep warm. Next Tuesday (Dec.8) my vet will remove my stitches at long last. Then we just watch the area for any other bumps to appear and hope that doesn't happen. Thanks again for the support as it sure did wonders to help us get through all those hard times. :) I am off for a cozy nap under the Christmas tree.

Love,
Louis

Biopsy Results Are In

My mom called Dr. Mike (my vet) today to be sure they didn't want to try me on another antibiotic. Amazingly enough my biopsy results just came in and it is under a week since my surgery. Pretty quick.

The mass was a sarcoma (cancer). That sounds bad but Dr. Mike is very positive about my recovery. My mom is not too knowledgeable about cancer "language" so some of it went over her head. She did ask questions but it seemed hard for her to understand. She will probably have a lot more questions by the time I go get my stitches out next week. Anyway Dr. Mike said they got good clean 1/4" margins around the mass. He said this type of mass does not usually metastasize (spread). He thinks I will be just fine now that the mass has been removed. He did say though that we must always watch the area very closely to be sure the cancer does not come back.

My mom was worried that she maybe should not have put me through all this but now knows she did exactly the right thing. So while the news could have been better, it also could have been a lot worse. I've really been feeling good the last 2 days. Pretty much my usual self. The only bad thing is the intense itching of the wound. Yikes it drives me crazy since I can't reach it to scratch it. My dad scratches it for me at least. They also put some kind of anti-itch cream on me and it works wonders. Dr. Mike said it was Ok to use. He also said to just forget the antibiotics at this point. They were just a precaution after the surgery anyway.

Thanks again for all the support, pawmail and gifts, my dear furiends! It has sure helped me and my mom get through this medical ordeal.

Love,
Louis

Recovery Can Be Tough

Hi furiends! I hope you had a nice Thanksgiving or even just a nice day yesterday. I am not doing too well today. It seems that the antibiotic has made me pretty sick. I don't want to eat & have both diarrhea & vomiting, The vet is closed until Monday. So my mom has no other choice but to stop the antibiotic and see if I start feeling better. I think I am since I was just nibbling a little dry food. This recovering stuff sure isn't easy. My wound looks very good though and I am bright and perky other than the digestive problems. Many thanks again for the pawmails, gifts and comments to me. Personal thank yous still coming and replies but only a little at a time. That's what happens when your secretary is s-l-o-w. Off to take a cozy nap- we had snow finally today!

Love,
Louis

The Day After

Hello furiends! All I can say about today is OUCHIE! Yes I am quite sore where my new booboo is located. My eyes are still a bit big and black so maybe the pain meds is still working some but it does not feel that way. I am not quite eating my normal amount of food but the vet office said that is normal for today. I am mostly just chilling and still trying to figure out about the buffalo that hit me yesterday. ;) (Just a little attempt at humor though not quite feeling up to it yet.) We found out it takes a long time to get the biopsy results back. The bloodwork was the 2 day result the vet's office mentioned yesterday. Silly me. I can't tell you how much lighter I feel just from getting that mass removed. We will upload a pic of my surgical wound after I send this diary update. I lost so much of my soft orange fur. Oh well better than what it was hiding still being inside me. Thank you so much for all the gifts, pawmails and messages left in my diary! I am one lucky dude to have such caring pals. Happy Thanksgiving to those celebrating.

Love,
Louis

Louis Surgery Update

Louis is home & has been for some time. I have to keep a close eye on him as he is a bit loopy from the pain meds. Did not get to talk to the vet as he was gone when we picked up Louis. What he removed was a big mass. :( I could not believe how big the wound is. It is being sent out to see if it benign or not. I am thinking not as "masses" are usually cancer. *sigh He goes back in 2 weeks to have the stitches out. No funny collar as he is too big to reach the wound anyway. Have to go watch him.

Louis's mom

Update- doing good!

This is just a short update to let you know how I am doing. I am actually doing pretty well. The ouchie where the vet took a good look at my lump has healed up nicely. It is shaved of course. We added a photo to my page so you can see the location of this lump. I know as time gets closer to next Tuesday (Nov. 24th) that I will worry more. That is my surgery date. My mom has not stopped worrying at all. She keeps feeling panicky about this procedure and wants to cancel it but my dad tells her we have to find out what this is for sure. If we didn't then we would always have to worry about it. So it calms her down for a second or two. Well she's my mom so what can I say?

Love,
Louis

No Answers As Yet

It looks like you might have to keep the purrs coming a little while longer. The vet checked me out really good He opened that spot & tried to squeeze it out & just got blood. It didn't tell him much. He said it could still either be a sebaceous cyst or a malignant tumor. :( So it has to come out to know for sure. I am scheduled for surgery on Nov, 24th. It will be high risk due to me being such a big boy. So I am pretty scared thinking about it. The vet said my health is excellent- heart & lungs etc just this lump to see about. My mom says she is still pretty upset because I feel fine now with no problems yet to have to do a surgery that might end my life. Probably it will not but just looking at the worst case scenario. The vet said we really can't wait to see what it does on the chance it is malignant & might spread. My mom is worried that it already may have as can't be sure how long I had it. Just because she just found it doesn't mean she did not miss it before. So just some of my thoughts. I guess we have to do the surgery. We need to know & the booboo needs to be gone. Thanks so much for all the pmail, gifts & comments. We will thank everyone personally before long. I think my mom just needs to let it all settle in for now.

Love,
Louis

Need Some Purrs

Yesterday when my mom was brushing me, she found what she thought was a mat in my fur. It turned out to be a lump of some sort. It's under the skin but there is something on top of my skin too. My fur fell out on top of this spot. It is located on my side. I feel fine and still eating well and all. My mom, on the other hand, is sick over this. She could not sleep last night and is not eating. I am asking if maybe you could send some purrs my way in hopes that whatever this is, it will turn out to be nothing serious. I go to the vet tomorrow morning to find out. I'll update you sometime after that. Many thanks!

Love,
Louis

Ice Cream Tag

I have been tagged to play the ice cream tag game by Karma Kitty! One of the games is to name my favorite Ice Cream Well I am not really much of a fan of ice cream believe it or not. I would say tuna ice cream. MOL! OK will actually pick vanilla then as it is probably the least offensive to me. The 2nd part of this tag is to name a flavor of ice cream that best suits us. So I choose Orange Cream Dream. I am orange, also have white like a cream color on me and I am a dream come true. Hehehe. That flavor is from Handels' ice cream stand by the way.

I will now tag the following pals for this Ice Cream Tag:

Muffy
Reeses
Cole
Ra

Love,
Louis

A Daily Diary Pick!

I am so excited to be a Catster Daily Diary Pick today. I think I've only had that honor once before a couple of years ago. So this is a nice treat. Especially with that young beast in the house. I needed something to brighten my day. Thank you Catster for doing a purrfect job of that too! MOL!

Love,
Louis