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