Anatomy of a cat's tumor

I'm visual, so here's a diagram to explain what's happening...

PURPLE = the area of the tumor. Most of it is in the cheek and is gradually spreading towards the right side of this diagram, where the jaw and eye are.
PURPLE X's = teeth that have been extracted or loosened on their own. She may have lost some more upper teeth that we don't know about because when the vet looked in her mouth today, she didn't see any teeth that would create any sort of grinding with the bottom teeth.
ORANGE = the jawbone that the tumor is rubbing against. You'll notice from the arrows that the wider her mouth is open, the greater these two areas come into contact.

Oncologist Visit

Cutie cat's tumor has been growing and causing complications in her mouth. She's completely on canned catfood now and recently has been making a crunching noise when she opens her mouth wide. Crunching noises with soft food doesn't jive, so this morning we took her back to the oncologist for a checkup. My guess was that her teeth were grinding together from having their position shifted, but it turned out to be her jawbone. As she opens her mouth, the enlarged portion of her tumor rubs against part of her jaw. Believe it or not, this was actually good news because it mean that my cat 1) didn't need to be sedated for an x-ray, 2) did not have to have any teeth extracted, and 3) did not have to risk infection or weight loss from having teeth extracted.

All things considered, the vet was very impressed with how well kitty's been doing. (Remember that back in December, the prognosis was 1-2 months and it's now 7 months later.) Despite some gradual weight loss, cutie cat still has her appetite, grooms herself regularly, and is very content and interactive.

Current weight: 5.96 lbs
Current favorite food: Trader Joe's Turkey & Giblets