Knox Knews

We took Knox to the vet today for a check-up. If you recall, the doctor felt the tumor two weeks ago, we modified his medications a bit, and today's visit was to check on how Knox and the tumor are doing. The news wasn't as good as I had hoped. Knox has had a really good 2 weeks with minimal vomiting, so I anticipated that the tumor would have shrunk and we'd be given a go-ahead to wait another month before checking in again. Well, not only hasn't the tumor changed but Knox has also lost a noticeable amount of weight. He's down to 9.4 pounds. While the tumor hasn't increased in size, the weight loss adds a new worry. Knox's good week probably means the increased medication is making him feel better, but medically he isn't doing any better, and by some measures he's doing worse. To put some perspective on the weight, at peak health he weighed about 13 pounds and when he was diagnosed with lymphoma in late February he weighed 10.8 pounds.

We decided to try a new chemotherapy. These tumors are very aggressive and quickly become resistant to chemo. Starting tomorrow we will give him a new drug (can't remember the name and I'm too lazy to run upstairs to look at the label) that you administer orally every 3 weeks. He'll need to have blood draws every 10 days or so. This is a stronger drug and we need to make sure his blood counts don't go haywire. We, of course, are also concerned about the increased monitoring. Knox hates the car and today's ride felt particularly difficult with Knox getting very sick and then drooling profusely. Meanwhile Madison howled the entire time. Oh, and Madison has been vomiting lately too.

Today feels heavy. I'm sad, but enjoying Knox as much as possible. You really wouldn't know he's sick and that remains our focus.