Back On Track

Mary Jo was scheduled to have her Herceptin (chemo) treatment at Minnesota Oncology in Burnsville on Tuesday July 20th, however she had a migraine headache had had to postpone that appointment.  The good staff at MOPA was able to accommodate a reschedule and get Mary Jo in for the missed treatment on Wednesday morning.  Mary Jo is now back on schedule and will receive her next treatment in three weeks and her last and final treatment on September 2.  (correction, in my last post, I incorrectly stated that Mary Jo's last Herceptin treatment would be August 2nd)  This will mark 52 weeks (not sessions) of treatment from the biologic chemo drug, Herceptin.  Mary Jo's migraine headache is gone but she continues to en dour many of the negative muscle and nerve (aches and pains) related side effects from the cancer treatments.  She rarely mentions these aches and pains to me but she confesses when I see her taking the max doses of the OTC pain relievers that her oncologist recommended for these side effects.  She is such a remarkable strong girl.

Tired Girl

Mary Jo has been feeling the cumulative effects from her cancer treatments lately in the form of being very tired.  She has been getting up later and later each morning.  Yesterday she got up at 3pm.  It has been rare in the last month that she is able to get up before noon.  Often if the weather is nice, Mary Jo will really try to get out of bed by 1pm.  Mary Jo does not complain at all and she does have the luxury of being able to get her rest if she needs it.  Dr Gall tells me not to be concerned as he believes this is a side effect from the cumulative radiation and ongoing Herceptin treatments.  Hopefully this side effect will subside a little more after Mary Jo's final Herceptin treatment on August 2nd marking 52 weeks of biologic chemo.

One Year Later

It has been one year since Mary Jo, for some unknown reason, woke up in the middle of the night on July 4th 2009 and discovered a lump on her right breast.  This discovery started Mary Jo and I down a path that I have tried to document on this blog.  Through it all, Mary Jo has always had a great attitude and today Mary Jo says she feels great.   Looking back, we could not possibly have imagined from the start how complicated and challenging the next 12 months were going to be but here we are today and life is good.  Mary Jo's treatment is not over yet, but from this vantage point, she has more behind her than in front of her.  

We hope everyone had a safe and Happy 4th of July, 2010.

"our group" at the Crosby Parade
Mary Jo - far right

Happy 4th of July

A Very Happy Birthday

Kevin and a F-18

Happy Birthday, Mary Jo is feeling good and celebrating her 46th birthday today.  Mary Jo attended the St Cloud Airshow on Saturday with friends, Jason, Nichole and Jake Reimer, Jamie Page and Mary Prizenna.  We all had a great time and its great to see MJ back to feeling like herself and not so tired anymore these days.

Mary Jo and Quick

Mary Jo, Nichole, Mary P. and Jamie

Yoga For The Cure

One of Mary Jo's old friends from school, business owner Bob Ernst sponsored a benefit at his Edina business (Core Power Yoga & Spa) last Friday to celebrate his companies 2nd Anniversary and raise money for the Cure with FREE YOGA all day (Friday June 18th), as well as Sales on ALL retail, outdoor yoga classes to LIVE MUSIC, Free Mini Spa treatments, and catered food! All benefiting Susan G Komen Breast Cancer Awareness and Research with a very generous $5,000 cash donation to my fundraising effort. There was a huge turnout and the event was a great success.  Thanks Bob.

Mary Jo and Bob at Core Power

The free Yoga class under the pavillion

Cleared By The Doctor

Mary Jo met with her GYN oncology surgeon,  Dr Cathy Casey today for the 8 week post op visit as a follow up to the recent robotic assisted prophylactic hysterectomy.  Dr Casey examined Mary Jo in her office and explained that everything is healing well, as expected and looking good.  Mary Jo described to Dr Casey feeling more tired than usual in the past few weeks and Dr Casey said that this is completely normal for women to experience this side effect.  The main cause she explained is "from the cumulative effects of chemo and radiation sessions in addition to the body trying to heal from the latest surgical procedure".  The weather we have been experiencing for the past few weeks has been a bit depressing, to say the least.  It's mid June and we have only had two days so far this month were it has not rained so from Mary Jo's perspective, there is not much incentive to get out of bed when your feeling tired.  She is such a trooper.

Too Much Fun

 Mary Jo has been feeling well for more than a few weeks now. We spent last weekend, Memorial Day with friends at Minnehaha Falls riding a Surry Bike (four passenger peddle bike) and then visited Ft. Snelling National Cemetery to pay our respects to the fallen veterans.

On Friday, our good friends Bob and Patti Calhoun allowed the use their beautiful boat to go boating on the St Croix to celebrate my birthday.

We got up early on Saturday morning to “road trip” to Eau Claire with friends, Jason, Nichole and Jamie to see the Eau Claire Air Show and also attend the graduation party of Vicky Spaeth-Rosenthal’s daughter Alex. The weather yesterday was cool and damp and unfortunately again, Mary Jo may have picked up a virus. Mary Jo’s immune system is still impaired from the cumulative effects from chemo and radiation. It is easy to forget about the health complications when the weather is summer like and you are celebrating birthdays and holidays but Mary Jo still needs to be mindful of this and we are getting another reminder with this latest bout. Tomorrow morning Mary Jo has her examination and case consultation with her oncologist Dr Gall just prior to her Herceptin (biologic chemo) treatment. As part of the examination, Dr Gall always does a complete hematology analysis of Mary Jo’s blood. We are hopeful that Mary Jo’s blood count numbers will have improved over her last post-chemo and radiation analysis.

riding the Surry bike     back seat- Nichole, Jake, Jason
front- Mary Jo and Kevin