Jane Brezina

As some of you may know, mom was diagnosed with acute leukemia on September 29, 2020. She immediately started a round of chemotherapy and the results showed a slight decrease in the percentage of cancer cells. A second round was started and again, the percentage went down slightly. During this time she had to avoid contact with most everyone because exposure to anything, even someone with a slight cold would put her at extreme risk of contracting something worse due to a weakened immune system. Most days consisted of trips to the hospital in New Prague or the Mayo Clinic in Rochester for chemo treatments, blood and platelet transfusions and status checkups. Her energy, appetite and platelet counts decreased significantly because of sores on her tongue and gums making it hard to swallow and difficult to eat. She has lost weight during this time and the this last month her breathing has become very labored. This last Monday, January 11th she was admitted to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester after a pretty rough weekend. Her test results from this last round of chemo did not show any progress and and unfortunately reflected an increase in the percentage of cancer cells present in her bone marrow. She has several teams of doctors addressing all her various issues and we found out yesterday that she has a fungus in her lungs which is probably part of the cause of her labored breathing. She has started medication to get rid of that and she also made the decision to start another round of chemo to try to buy her as much time as possible. She has kept up an incredible attitude and positive thinking that she will fight this as long as she can. We are hoping that she will be able to come home early next week and will have local  palliative care to assist with her her needs and keep her comfortable. Her goal is to welcome and see her new great-granddaughter who is expected to arrive on February 23rd. Please offer your thoughts, words of encouragement or special memories of mom. Welcome to our CaringBridge website. We are using it to keep family and friends updated in one place. We appreciate your support and words of hope and encouragement. Thank you for visiting.