Bonita Zobeck

Welcome to our CaringBridge website. We are using it to keep family and friends updated in one place. 
Early Nov 2020, we took a trip to see our Grandson, Theo, in Calif which was the beginning of abdominal discomfort and some shortness of breath. It was at Thanksgiving that the discomfort became significant for Bonita to set up an appointment with her doctor.  A CT was ordered and done in the first week of December. Shortly after that she got a call for a face to face meeting with her doctor and was informed that the CT and blood work indicated she had Ovarian Cancer. Her care was transferred to an Oncologist that requested a biopsy prior to her first appointment.  In mid-December she showed up on time for her biopsy and waited. She was to have a glass full of contrast media followed by a second glass full an hour later and then the biopsy would occur an hour after that.  After waiting 45 min she informed the receptionist that she never got her first dose of the media. Half hour later a technician came out with both glasses of contrast  and was told to drink them both. They began the biopsy procedure about 45 min after giving her the contrast media. When the scan was done to locate the tumor to biopsy it was barely visible. The doctors said cancers do not shrink so she must have an Infarction of the Omentum.  They called it a Christmas miracle.  But Bonita still had a painful swollen belly. The Oncologist order an Ultrasound of her abdomen to assess what was going on.  It was delayed until after the New Year.  It showed she had excess fluid which was moving around in her abdominal cavity. Her Oncologist ordered a paracentesis to drain off some fluid which was sent to the lab for a cytology.  In addition a third CT was done. By the second week of January 2021, she met with the Oncologist and learned she has Primary Paritoneal Cancer which was confirmed by the cytology. The third CT did not show any tumors in the lymph node, other organs or bone. She was given a treatment plan of three cancer drugs to be infused over 6 hours every 21 days for 3 months to shrink the existing tumors. Then she will have surgery to remove all or as much of the omentum as possible. This will be followed by another 3 months of cancer drugs.  We had hoped to be already started on the infusions before the end of January but the first available appointment is the second Friday of February.  We can't help but think if the second CT had been done correctly she would be finishing her first month of treatment. 


 We will be using this site to keep everyone informed of the ups and downs of this journey. We will both we posting but we will try to note who is the author of each thread of this story.  We appreciate your support and words of hope and encouragement. Thank you for visiting.