Buffy, my kitty who turns 18 on the 30th, was diagnosed with lymphoma yesterday.

The two veterinary oncologists at my local clinic are booked out for the next 6 weeks so we have a consult with a veterinary oncologist next Friday at a clinic 70 miles away.  (This will incidentally be the furthest I have driven since before the pandemic.  I kinda stopped driving distances back then.)

I believe that the chemo can be administered locally.  

It's intestinal lymphoma and I think it's the large cell variety, which has the better prognosis.  I'm praying that we are just dealing with a 3-month course of chemo and then remission (although they never say that kitty lymphoma is cured).  Some varieties of cat lymphoma have a 2-3 year prognosis with chemo, and that is about how long I would expect her to live anyways.

She is my miracle kitty who was expected to die back in 2019 when she was hospitalized for 10 days.  She's been consulting the internal medicine specialist quarterly since then, so we caught this relatively early.  She did not have enlarged lymph nodes at her last check on 12/5.  Also her bloodwork is normal except for somewhat elevated neutraphils.

Yesterday when I went to pick her up, there was a Basset Hound named Albert in the waiting room.  Bassets are my "spirit animal" and seeing one felt like a good luck charm to me.  I pray it is.

I know that she doesn't have a long life span remaining in any case, but I've been walking around with a hard knot in the pit of my stomach since hearing the news yesterday.  If her lymphoma turns out to be more agressive, she could be gone in 4 to 8 weeks.  So I'm praying for longer with her than that.