I last wrote about Rhea’s experience with stereotactic radiosurgery about two weeks after she had finished treatment. She was doing well then, which of course thrilled me because I had no idea what to expect.
It’s now been a little over two months. A couple of days after we came home from her two-week follow up, right after I wrote the last post, her hair began falling out – which I was expecting – but they exposed some burns on top of her head, where she had the treatment. I took her back to the doctor, and he told me they were indicative of burns from radiation and were to be expected. He gave me a topical steroid and told me to keep a cone over her head so that she couldn’t scratch or lick the burns.
I applied the steroid for a few weeks, but the wound area – some of the burns were open and pus-filled, seemed to keep growing. She also seemed to be depressed and in pain, as she wasn’t her playful self and wasn’t eating like normal. I took her back to him about two weeks ago and he said the burns looked like they were getting infected. So he gave me an antibiotic, a stronger steroid, and some pain medication.
It’s been two weeks since then and she is definitely much better. I can tell she’s no longer in pain – or at least not is as much pain as she was, as she’s running about, getting into things, playing with the dog, and is back to eating normally. She doesn’t like taking her meds, but what animal does 🙂
The burn still looks yucky – for lack of a better term – but it isn’t open and blistery and pus-filled. It now looks like it is scabbed over. Her tumor is still there but I do think it’s still shrinking. The doctor told me sometimes it takes months for it to go away or get down to a small size. He also told me it could come back or never go completely away.
So, I’m happy that she seems to feel better and that the burn area looks improved. But I know this could be a long journey, and that it could still not end well. If the tumor comes back or doesn’t go completely away, I really don’t want to put her through this again, especially since we went through over a month of dealing with open, pus-filled, potentially infected burn marks, and I know she was in pain at points. Not to mention, I don’t have a lot left in my insurance account and the treatments are very expense. So, basically I’m trying to brace myself for the worst while hoping and trying my hardest for the best.
Anyway, I just wanted to record my experiences here in case anyone else has a cat who goes through stereotactic radiosurgery / stereotactic radiation. There hasn’t been a whole lot written about the treatment, and my vet hadn’t had much experience with cats undergoing it – only dogs. So maybe we can benefit from each other’s personal experiences.