Treatments

Last week, Donna started receiving her treatments from the Moffit Cancer Institute. They gave here a couple shots near her lymph nodes under her arm and near her groin just under the skin. Its kinda like the immunizations everyone we all got growing up.

She will get a series of shots every two weeks through the end of April. After that she will come back to Carson City. She'll go back to Florida for a couple more shots that are spread out more...

Most people have little or no reaction to this treatment. Donna has been doing fine and is mostly in good spirits. Every so often though she could still use a nice pick-me-up... So keep her in yer prayers and send her an email, a card, or a good singing telegram...


I wonder if Mitch and Donna feel like youngens in Florida...?

Florida - Week 2

So... Got a call from Mitch today.

They have settled in... The docs have taken a sample of Donna's white blood cells, and they will start making their magic recipe to put back into her body. It takes about 2 weeks for everything to grow and get processed so it can be put back into her body...

So, in the mean time, Mitch and Donna have been enjoying themselves. They've been at the beach... They are staying right across the street from Busch Gardens. They are looking at going to Disney World and lots of other attractions around the area.

Mitch says that traffic is terrible... much worse than Reno.

Also, Anna and Phil came down to visit from Kentucky. Just a quick 800 mile drive to hang out for a week. Very cool!

So things continue to go very well... They thank everyone a bunch for all your support and prayers...

Florida - Beginnings

I received a call from Mitch today...

They have settled in to their place in Florida.

Donna got to see the doc, and I guess they somehow did some random selection method to see what program she would be part of. I don't know if they rolled dice or flipped coins or raced chickens... /shrug (I'm so silly... they are in Florida, so clearly they would have raced alligators...)

But anyway... Donna ended up in the "Right" group. I am assuming that means they are going to give her the program where they upgrade her white blood cells with a virus that helps them find and combat future cancer cells. Hopefully, that also means they are giving her the bonus medicine that should help some...

She has had her first blood test today already... So things are moving quickly. Mitch said it was all "very good news."

Latest News

I just heard from Donna last night that her latest CT scan showed no cancer at all... Nothing in her liver. Nothing in her lungs. It showed a bit of scar tissue, but no visible cancer. So that is VERY GOOD NEWS!

If things stay like this for a few months, they can officially say that the cancer is in remission.

Also... Donna's voice is about 95% back now... and could actually continue to improve.

So even more very good news.

But please don't everone relax and enjoy their favorite drink as they toast to defeating the evil cancer monster. The kind of cancer Donna has is known for mutating and coming back. If that happens, then the chemo treatments that were used this time around would be much less effective, or perhaps useless.

So... what am I saying? Well, that Donna is doing very well... and that things look very good. But continue to pray... Perhaps she has been healed for good of this thing and will go on and live another 30 carefree years. But its not guaranteed...

Tomorrow, Donna and Mitch leave for Florida. They will be there for a month or two. We will know in about a week which program she will become a part of, but the hope is that she will be part of a group that gets the stuff that will make her own body much more resistant to any recurrance of cancer...

I hope to get regular updates from them and keep this blog up to date. Leave a comment if you have any questions...

Comments

I was going through the setup files for this blog, and realized that only registered users had the ability to comment. I changed that so that anyone can comment.

If you have tried to comment before and couldn't, please try again. It should let you now.

If you've never tried to comment before, go ahead. Ask a question... Leave something encouraging... Type out a prayer... I will do my best to make sure everything gets back to Donna...

Thanks!

Update

Hey there...

Sorry for not updating this lately...

Not sure there is much to report. Chemo has still been going fairly well... Donna's heart is doing well according to a recent Echo-Cardiogram. The speach people still hope that she can recover more of her voice over the next 6+ months.

If things go as planned, then Donna will be heading out to Florida in March... See my prior post on the Moffit Cancer Center for the details on that.

She had a retirement party at the prison recently that lots of people showed up. I heard that several of her, um, customers, wanted to attend, but they were otherwise "detained"... ;-)

Chemo - Round 4

Donna just finnished up her fourth round of chemotherepy. This one also took some toll on her body... Going in her blood count was normal... She seems to be in pretty good spirits and her voice seems to be getting stronger to me.

Looks like there will be two more rounds of chemo to make a total of six, and then they will probably head off to Florida to work with the Moffit center...