Everything But The Cancer

Last weekend ended nicely. I ended up meeting my 2 female bar friends around noon, and we headed off to do some shopping. I got a sweater and new earrings to wear for NYE and they both bought a few items also. After we shopped, we hit up Pony Bar for 1 beer before heading down to a wine bar in our area. We spent the afternoon drinking nice wines and snacking on food - and actually had a blast. It's not often I hang with just the females in our group and I honestly loved our time together. While at the wine bar, a friend of mine from work started texting about the Packers game so we ended up heading down to our local bar to end the day cheering on the Packers (GOOOOO Cobb from Kentucky and Rodgers!)

I went into work on Monday, thinking I would stay for just a few hours. And I did. I got in late because I assumed (incorrectly) my boss wasn't at the office. And then about 30 minutes after I got in, I took off and met some of my old coworkers for lunch. This was a 20 min walk over and then back, and then lunch. It was really good seeing them though and getting caught up. When I finally got back to the office, my mind was just not on things. So a coworker and I left very early (with our boss' permission) and grabbed a few beers. We were joined by one of my bar friends for a bit, and I ended up at home around 8:30 pm that day.

Tuesday was a WFH day doing not much of anything. I ended up going to my bar friend's apartment around 7 pm and she did my hair and makeup for NYE. She also did my other female bar friend's hair and makeup, so it was a couple of hours of girl time, this time with champagne. We then met up with the guys for our NYE celebration at our local. We had a blast - and stayed out until around 2 am. It's always so nice seeing the madness of Times Sq on the TV, and realizing it's only a few blocks from us, and then realizing we don't have to be involved with it! Local bar on the outer edge of Hells Kitchen - it rocks; everyone should have one.

Wed was spent recovering heavily. And Thurs I went into work thinking it would be a "low key work day" again. But it wasn't. My boss put me on a last minute assignment and I ended up working until almost 6 pm. When I was walking home, it started snowing lightly. I was only home for about 20 minutes when Blondie and I left again to go to Pio to meet up with one of Blondie's TX friends. And in that 20 minutes, it went from snowing lightly to SNOWING. Seeing Blondie's TX friend was awesome and his new girlfriend rocks. When we left dinner, we decided to go to our local for beers, and ended up shutting down the bar that night. When we came out of the bar, it was like a whiteout. The roads were wrecks, the sidewalks were wrecks, it was just insane. 6 hours going from nothing to crazy crazy snow.

Friday I did another WFH day as there was no way I was braving sidewalks to get into the office. We didn't do much Friday night or Saturday. I started feeling kind of crappy on Saturday so was just taking it easy. And on Sunday I woke up with a massive sore throat and general nose cruddiness, and body achiness. I immediately popped some aspirins and then felt a little better. My bar friends texted early to suggest a Pony meet-up in a few hours, and I decided to go after I felt better. But before I could leave, they texted again that a high-rise building down the block from me was on fire. It was a massive fire (there is smoke / char burn all the way up the building) with 1 person actually dying from smoke inhalation. It blocked off all of our street and most of the avenue the building was located on.

I took a back way to Pony because of this, but you could still see smoke like crazy. Pony was a lot of fun though - they had an elderberry cider on the menu which felt really good on my throat. And we watched the Chargers win (one of my bar friends is a San Diego-an - I never know how to pronounce this because I've watched Anchorman too many times). Then I came home to take a nap, and pop more aspirins, and then watch the Packers lose with 2 secs left on the clock.

Today it was back to the office. I'm physically in the office for 1 week before I'm off again for 1 week. It was a sad day, part of which you'll read about in a second, and part of which is due to one of my favorite people and close coworkers quitting.

Now About The Cancer

On Friday, the vet's office called with the results of Tigga's test. He has cancer - small cell lymphoma of his GI tract. We (Tigga and I) met today with the oncologist to discuss next steps. The good news is what Tigga has: most common cancer in cats (lymphoma), most common spot to get cancer in cats (GI tract), most treatable form of most common cancer in cats (small cell). The bad news is: there is no cure / remission for this. The best we can do is manage the disease. Survival rate for cats who go on chemo is approximately 3 yrs (some a lot less, some a lot more). Without chemo, we're looking at 6 mos - 12 mos survival rate.

We've picked chemo combined with steroids. We start giving him a steroid pill once a day followed by a chemo pill once every 2 days. (Did you know that chemo pills for cats are filled at your pharmacy? I sure didn't.) There is a chance he can get sick from this - vomiting, etc - just like with a human. So we have to monitor and make sure he's not puking (which will be hard b/c he's been a puker since the day we adopted him). We also have go in once a month for 3 months to get blood work done to make sure we aren't doing anything adverse to him with the meds. He'll be on pills until he dies.

My heart is B.U.S.T.E.D. On one hand, I'm glad that if he's going to get cancer, it's what it is. I'm glad that we are in a position to afford to take care of him. On the other hand, he doesn't deserve this. No cat / dog / human deserves it. I'm fucking pissed off. I'm not ready for him to not be with us. And I'm not ready to think about him not being with us. And this is forcing it. I'm trying to be positive - he's a fighter, always has been. But fuck you universe for doing this to him.

Tigga. He owns a giant piece of my heart.