Sasha's Surgery Day

My wonderful 15 year old cat Sasha is now at the vets having surgery for her oral cancer and I am an absolute basket case.  I took her in at 8:30 and Sasha's vet, Dr. Nell, and the surgeon both met with me after they looked at Sasha.  The surgeon isn't sure if Sasha will be able to have a lip or much of a lip and she may drool a lot, but then she already does, so cosmetically we aren't sure what is possible.  One lymph node is swollen, but the surgeon doesn't know if that is a spread of the cancer or if it is infected, but it will be removed either way.  Both Dr. Nell and the surgeon felt that this was a good move for Sasha.  As the surgeon said, we can only make the best decision we can at the moment with the given data and down the road we may look back to say it was a great decision or it was an ok decision or it was a bad decision, but we can't go backwards.  So with a last hug and kiss, I left my lovely Sasha in very capable hands and I am now hanging on to my cell phone with the volume turned way up, waiting.  Dr. Nell was also not sure if Sasha would be coming home this afternoon or not, so lots still to await, but Sasha is in very capable and loving hands.  The surgeon is very kind and kept saying how sweet Sasha is.  He is a gentle soul and one of the top ranked vet surgeons in the area so everything that can be done for Sasha is being done.


Last night Sasha gave me a real treat of sitting in my lap for over 2 hours!  She hasn't done that since she had her wobbly turn two weeks ago and it meant so much to me and I hope also to her.  She crawled into my lap just before 9PM and by then I am normally in bed, but I wanted to stay up later for the cats anyway, since I had to pull all feeding dishes when I went to bed (if Sasha can't eat then neither can anyone else!), and I was just thinking of going to bed when she jumped into my lap.  Well, needless to say, I stayed right where I was, and we snuggled for 2 hours before we both had to move.  It was very special and I'm hoping that Sasha was letting me know that she understands even if she won't like what has to happen.  She gives so much love and joy to us all that I just have to hope this will help her have a longer high quality life.  Dr. Nell had said that her blood work etc. is that of a much younger cat and without this aggressive cancer Sasha probably would have lived to be 20 or even 25!  So she is a strong and sweet cat and I'm hoping the removal of this nasty mass will at least extend her life significantly.  In any case, she is having problems with the steroids which have kept things as well as they are, so something has to be done.  I ramble, but my thoughts are with Sasha, the beautiful black cat who came into our lives when my son, Eric, adopted her from the Phoenix Humane Society 13 years ago!  At that time Sasha was 2 but very ill and we didn't even know if she would survive.  But Eric fell in love with her (who could help doing that?), and so he adopted her and the rest, as they say, is history.  Seems like a lifetime ago and Sasha and I have been through a lot since then.  She is very, very special.  Anyway, that's it for now.  I'm attached to my cell phone and I will post updates along the way.