Sassy New Hair

Mary Jo is feeling good heading into the Memorial Day Holiday weekend. We are planning to drive to Omaha today with Diane to celebrate Mary Jo’s nephews (Caleb Rice) high school graduation. Mary Jo appears to be over the bronchitis now and her hair is coming in thick. Mary Jo and I attended a wedding reception for our friends, Nick and Laura’s over the past weekend. The event marked the first time Mary Jo was out in public sporting her new short hair without the wig and she looks very “sassy”.

Good Scan Today

Mary Jo had a MUGA (multi gated acquisition) scan today at the Fairview Ridges Hospital in Burnsville. The scan was ordered by Mary Jo’s oncologist, Dr Gall to monitor heart function capacity. The ongoing treatment of the biologic chemo therapy drug Herceptin has a nasty side effect of being very hard on patients heart function so it is imperative that scans be performed every three months. Mary Jo’s scored a heart function result of a 69. This represents a score ever so slightly lower than what was recorded on her previous scan, where Mary Jo scored a 71. A MUGA scan result has a degree of error of + or - 5 points so a 69 is essentially the same as a 71. This is good news. If the heart function score had dropped below a 49, Mary Jo’s oncologist would have to discontinue the important Herceptin treatments.

Mary Jo before the procedure

scanning the left ventricle

scanning the right ventricle

Puzzling Numbers

Mary Jo had her Herceptin (biologic chemo) treatment, blood work analysis and case review at Minnesota Oncology in Burnsville on Monday morning. Mary Jo continues to tolerate the Herceptin treatments with little of the adverse side effects however the blood work analysis results were a bit puzzling to Mary Jo’s doctors because all her numbers took a dip across the board for some undetermined reason. Dr Gall’s theory is this is likely the cumulative result of the several factors. Mary Jo is still recovering from the recent hysterectomy, 35 radiation sessions and 8 rounds of chemo therapy plus she is still fighting a Bronchitis infection in her lungs. The puzzling part is her blood numbers should have dipped three to six weeks ago and gradually started the recovery by this point. Dr Gall will continue to closely monitor the counts every three weeks at the scheduled Herceptin treatment appointments. Mary Jo feels pretty good with the exception of the Bronchitis symptoms, which continue to improve daily with the help of a seriously strong antibiotic, Levaquin 500mg.

Mary Jo and I along with friends and family did the Twin Cities 5k Colon Cancer Walk last Sunday in Edina near the Southdale shopping mall. It was a beautiful day and our group walked 5k to help raise money for colon cancer research and awareness. Colon cancer touches Mary Jo and I very close to home because Mary Jo’s mom, Diane is a colon cancer survivor and our good friend and neighbor, Jon Holmes colon still continues his battle with colon cancer today. Our good friends Nicole and Jason Reimer (and Jack and Jack) were walking with us in honor of Nicole’s father, who is also a colon cancer survivor.

above- Diane at the finish line of the 5k
below- Diane, Nichole Remier, Jamie Page, Mary Jo

back row-Blake Holmes, Kevin Burns, Nicole Reimer, Diane Noldin, Mary Jo Burns, Jon Holmes
front row- Jack Skellton, Jake Reimer, Jason Reimer

Race and Walk For The Cure

Mary Jean, Jamie Page, MJ, Diane, Sheree Krueger, Meghan Krueger

Mary Jo had a great show of support from her friends and family at this year’s annual Susan G. Koman Race For The Cure. Our local event was held on May 9t (Mothers day) on the streets surrounding Mall Of America with the goal of raising money for breast cancer research and awareness. The event consisted of a 5k race, a 5k walk and an indoor 3k walk. May Jo’s friend, Jamie Page raced the 5k run, finishing in just 29 minutes.

My sister-in-law, Kate Burns was our leader and team captain for the big walk. Kate helped organize our groups 5K walking team named “Breast Friends For Mary Jo”. The event was a huge success and our team raised $350 towards the overall $2.5 million dollars fundraised by the more than 55 thousand people in attendance. Mary Jo had planned on doing the 5K walk with her team but unfortunately she was still battling a sore throat and cold like symptoms.

55,000+ people showed up for the walk

back row-Jamie Page, Jim Burns, Diane, Kate Burns
middle- Leslie Burns, Mary Jo, Renee Page, Randy Burns
front- Dan Mertz

The lingering effects from chemo and radiation have knocked down Mary Jo's ability to fight off infections so Mary Jo and Diane did not walk but offered their support as spectators and cheered on all the runners and walkers near the finish line. Mary Jo’s symptoms still continue today, so as a precaution she will be seen by her primary care physician Dr Cross for an examination in Dr Cross’ Burnsville office. Mary Jo had previously been scheduled for a MUGA scan today at Fairview Ridges Hospital this morning but we had to reschedule because of the persistent symptoms. I expect Dr Cross will prescribe an antibiotic to help fight off any infection and Mary Jo will be feeling better in the days ahead.

Three Weeks Post Op

Mary Jo and Campbell on the front porch

It was three weeks ago today that Mary Jo was admitted to Abbott Northwestern Virginia Piper Cancer Institute for a prophylactic DaVinci hysterectomy. Mary Jo is recovering well today and continues to improve day to day. Mary Jo’s surgeon made six small incisions during the robotically assisted surgery, and all of the sites have healed very well. There is actually very little evidence of any scars. Mary Jo still must be careful not to lift over 20 pounds for a little while longer. Mary Jo’s surgeon, Dr Casey warns that lifting increases the abdominal pressure, which is a bad thing for the effected recovering organs and tissues post op.

Today Mary Jo is feeling a bit under the weather due to a sore throat but she is looking forward to the Susan G Komen breast cancer event this weekend, mother’s day at MOA. My sister in law Kate Burns organized a group named “Breast Friends for Mary Jo”. You can walk inside or run the 5k or 1k outside the mall. Mary Jo and I will be doing the walk. Please feel free to join us with your own families on May 9th at MOA! Registration is $25 per adult and $12 per child. For the non-walker-runner types, there is even a Sleep in for the Cure. A link to Kate’s team sign up is jut to the right of this post.