Hi there!  I'm very behind in responding to these posts... sorry!  But I've
almost got all the wonderful messages about Tarzan answered (still working
on it) - thank you again!  I sure still miss the big guy, really bad, and
sometimes can't believe/feel panic he's gone... I've always known life
wasn't fair, but now I'm absolutely sure.
 
I get to meet Gary Holowicki!  And see my Oregon friends.  At the Oregon
event, Sept.  12, which I'd been gearing up for, til Tarz got sick... With
Tarzee sick these past months, I've missed nearly every summer event I
usually attend, and I didn't think I'd make it.  But now my dad's lost 30
pounds following "routine follow-up" chemo/radiation *eight months ago!*,
and has been too weak to fly kites (though has gained a few pounds in the
past week, so I'm hoping for a solid upswing).  So I'll catch the frolic,
then be down in beautiful Oceanside, Oregon visiting dad for a week,
hopefully flying kites and meeting his buddies.  (You usually can't miss my
dad in Oceanside.  He's the "Kite Man", sometimes stringing five or six of
his "unmistakably Lee A." tail-less stunt kits on one line, doing "kite
research".  Lee A.  kites have been flown over the Taj Mahal and the Great
Pyramid, become entangled in a Greek fishing boat, and won a hoity-toity
contest at Princeton University... we'll be working on one in the shape of
a ferret, of course!
 
Re: Lympho, there have been a couple posts mentioning fuzzies with abdominal
masses where lympho wasn't suspected because there were no swollen outer
nodes.  My wonderful Tarzan had lympho inolving only mesentary nodes, one
above and below the stomach and some smaller ones along the intestines.  No
outer nodes were enlarged, which delayed his diagnosis.  His symptoms were
vomiting, weight loss, and, eventually, small, sort of clipped-off stools.
I sincerely hope both fuzzies mentioned have non-cancerous masses.  My vet
gave me a rundown on many other possibilities after surgery and before we
got the pathology report, but, for sweet Tarzan, those other more benign
possibilities weren't to be
 
On 28 Aug 98 at 4:00, Automatic digest processor wrote:
>From:    Z zzzzzzz <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: x-rays and blockages
>
>Lynn M. wrote yesterday:
>>By the way, blockages that may not show up on x-ray may be found
>>when barium is swallowed first and the barium followed through the
>>system via a series of x-rays.
>
>I just wanted to point out that in my experience, this is not always
>true-- there are some blockages that just don't show up, period.  Amelia's
>blockage a couple of years ago showed no sign at all on the x-rays, not
>even in the form of gas bubbles around the blockage.  She as completely
>stoppered up by a little rubberized felt pad, the same kind of thing that
>Katie's Worf was blocked by (everybody take Katie's warning on that to
>heart, those things cause serious blockages when ingested!).
>No disrespect intended to Lynn here
<SNIP>
>Regina Harrison
 
Hi Regina!  I sure didn't sense any disrespect at all :)  And I agree (I'd
written *may*, but it's good to emphasize it as you have) that x-rays
following a barium swallow may not detect a blockage, and add that they
probably won't detect tumors, as they didn't for my sweet Tarz.  He was so
full of life and health and energy all his life I couldn't begin to think
tumors, until he was opened up and there they were :(....
 
Lynn, of six Fuzzy neckwarmers, missing the Great Spirit, Tarzan,
            and her other fearless star pushers
[Posted in FML issue 2423]