It’s been a while since the last entry here, because not much has been happening, which is mostly a good thing.

Ileal wall changes

Milo was back at the specialists NDSR at the start of June for the Doxorubicin that marked the end of his third cycle of the CHOP protocol for chemotherapy. He also had a scan to check progress, and that scan identified ‘Ileal wall changes’, which were a new finding and a cause for concern.

So… he was back at NDSR two weeks later for another scan (and the Vincristine to start his forth round of CHOP). That scan didn’t note any changes, so we’ll check again at the end of this round.

At this stage we’d be hoping for no evidence of disease, meaning a complete response (CR) to the chemo; but sadly that’s not where we’re at. He’s had a partial response (PR), and seems happy and healthy on the surface. But palliative chemo can only be expected to hold off the cancer rather than cure it, which means we’re probably looking at months of extra time with Milo rather than years.

Gained weight

At the start of treatment Milo slipped below 5kg and was looking pretty skinny (his normal weight is 5.5kg), and we were having to give him extra meals just to hold onto that.

The extra meal at lunch got discontinued months ago, but he’s still been getting extra kibble with breakfast and dinner. He’s also been finishing off Max’s dental food, which the vet warned might make Max gain weight.

Every recent trip to the vets has been accompanied by ‘has gained weight since last time here’, and suddenly we were at 6kg (from 5.7kg two weeks earlier), and a harness that just fitted. So it was time to cut back the extras, and get him back to a normal weight. A diet of just (his favourite) Butternut Box meals seems to have got things back to where they should be, and maybe some kibble can now be added to keep him stable.

Past parts:

1. diagnosis and initial treatment

2. first setback

3. back on track

4. second setback

5. easing the pace

6. counting the cost