I'm sure I'm overloading my Facebook with Charlie pics and stories right now, but it does make it possible for me to upload pictures on the Tripawds threads.   This is a pic of Charlie's new cone, his sewn on bandage, and of Weston giving his kitty a chin bath.  The meds are sticky and Charlie hates the taste, so he drools some of them out and his fur gets gross:

Oh no!  It didn't show up?  I can try it again.  I noticed I couldn't upload as a file, so I use the links from my Facebook posted photos

Gotcha... I didn't realize that Facebook photos would end up as broken links I'll probably have a lot to blog about through all of this.  It's been an emotional roller coaster. 

We are picking up Charlie this afternoon.  The open area on the wound we were concerned about didn't concern the surgeon as much as it concerned the ER vet, so he cleaned it up two more times before closing it.  He did leave a little hole for drainage in case more fatty tissue dissolved.  The problem he saw was the little gray patches that he noticed the last time he saw Charlie.  When I look at the picture above I can see what he's talking about.  He said that it indicates necrosis and that those areas did not recover it's blood supply after surgery.  Last Wednesday it wasn't as clear if it would recover, but he said that now that it's been a few more days that it appears to have declared itself.  He cut those areas out yesterday to keep them from spreading to healthy tissue.  So, now Charlie has a few new open spots.  We will be going in for daily bandage changes.  If those areas recover well, they can be closed up after a week or so.  If not, he has to have a 'skin flap' done to put live tissue over the area.  Best case scenario will be $2,000 to $2,500 (not including the $497 for the ER visit on Saturday), worst case scenario that would require a skin flap will be $1,500 to $2,500 more than that.  If we just removed the dead tissue and waited for it to regenerate on it's own, it would be painful and take significantly longer to heal even if that would be cheaper than closing it up or doing the skin flap.  Considering that Charlie will need radiation, waiting is not ideal.  We see the oncologist when we pick up Charlie today as well to talk things over and see what his thoughts are on whether radiation will still be as effective if it is delayed.  I feel like everything is going wrong.  Our poor kitty boy.  If this cancer ends up taking him from us anyway I will feel guilty for putting him through all of this additional pain, even if we did this for the right reasons.  You all weren't kidding when you said this was a roller coaster. 

Thank you, mommatux! That really helps me find my way through the fog.  I can't even tell you how much better I feel reading about your experiences and the options you had.  We had a different oncologist come in and he didn't seem to have read the report beforehand since he just mentioned this is 'likely' a higher grade based on the sarcoma type so recurrence is more likely and that with some residual cells found that we need to be prepared that radiation may not prevent recurrence, just delay it.  It was general information we already knew and none of it was specific to Charlie.  The oncologist then just ran down the different treatment options once Charlie is actually healed enough to receive it. It may be because they combined our appointments with soft tissue surgery to pick up Charlie and they just had oncology stop in.  I actually got more information from the head surgeon on the report during that visit.  He did say again that the cells they found on the margins did not match the cells in the sarcoma itself (this time they didn't try to convince me that the margins were 'clean').  They could be a form of cells from the cancer or just inflammation, but we should treat them as cancer either way.  He also said the unusual thing about Charlie's sarcoma was that the center of the sarcoma was more aggressive than the tentacle like growths around it.  I guess it's usually the other way around.  He said that a few weeks of waiting for healing may not change the effectiveness of radiation since the cells are not the same aggressive type found in the center of the sarcoma, though he can't really guarantee this.  Maybe the oncologist we usually see will have better information for us.  At this point, I feel like I don't even know what decision to make. 

I think right now I just need to remind myself to focus on getting Charlie's wounds to heal.  I also started looking into funds that can help pay for radiation and asked the vet that administered the vaccine to inquire about reimbursement.  That vet's office hasn't actually had to seek reimbursement from the vaccine company yet, so they are asking them about it for us now.  I had MSU fax the records over to them and I emailed pictures of the tumor's location to them.  Does anyone know what the vaccine company actually reimburses?  Will they cover diagnosis, testing, surgery, and radiation?  Or just a few of these things?  I'm so heartbroken...  I just want our kitty boy to have the best chance possible. 

Thank you, benny55!  That thread is amazing.  I wouldn't have thought to ask the vet to do this for us without it.  I did receive an email from the vet's office that said the vaccine company rep they work with said that they would help us.  They have the fax from MSU and will call and talk to them directly today.  I did ask the vet to get more information from the vaccine company rep on what exactly they reimburse to see if radiation would be something they will help pay for as well.  It will just help me decide whether I should seek the reimbursement now to help pay for radiation, or to take out a loan to pay for radiation and then seek reimbursement so that those costs are included as well.

The good news is that Charlie is eating and drinking really well now.  I think he feels better.  🙂