Donna Jones

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Donna has been diagnosed with Stage 1B Non-small cell lung cancer.  Prognosis is good for a full recovery (It's "curable").


While Donna was still living in Indiana, doctors noticed a small mass in her left lung.   Donna moved to Minnesota in 2018 to live with her daughter Kyle and Donna’s husband Don shortly followed, after getting their home ready for sale.  


June 2019, Donna was taken to the ER as she wasn't feeling well.  One of the things the doctors noticed was that the mass in her lung had about doubled in size.  After some doctor's appointments, they scheduled her for a OR bronchoscopy procedure in August to view the mass and do a biopsy to test the cells from the mass.  Donna had some scans prior to bronchoscopy and on the day of the scheduled bronchoscopy procedure the procedure needed to be rescheduled, as Donna was seen in the ER for 3 small strokes.  She was treated with tPA and her stroke symptoms were reversed, except for some mild leg weakness that comes and goes.   After some treatment with blood thinners to reduce the likelihood of another stroke, Donna was scheduled for a less invasive non-OR bronchoscopy, but when they performed that procedure, they were unable to get conclusive results. But at that time, the surgeon at the cancer center ruled out surgery as a likely option due to position of the tumor and Donna's COPD.  In October, Donna was again scheduled for an OR bronchoscopy and received her expected diagnosis of lung cancer.  The diagnosis is Stage 1B Non-small cell lung cancer (type unable to be further classified), with no lymph node or other involvement in the body.   Today she had her first appointment at the Cancer Center and the outlook is very positive.  The treatment plan is to do daily radiation and then after 5-6 weeks likely do 4 sessions of chemotherapy 3 weeks apart.  They will be doing foundation testing on her tumor to be able to better understand the type for treatment purposes.    She is scheduled for her Radiology consult with the Radiology Oncologist (cancer radiation specialist) on Tuesday, November 3rd, then will start daily radiation shortly thereafter.