Rhonda Menke Rhonda Menke (Hartley IA)

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Rhonda was diagnosed with a brain tumor in late December 2016. She had a craniotomy to remove the tumor a few days after Christmas.  We then received news a couple days post-surgery that the tumor was positive on the biopsies for lymphoma, which is actually a cancer of the blood.  The cancer she has is known as Primary CNS Lymphoma and is very rare because of the location of the lymphoma in the brain.  She was fortunate to have a talented surgeon who successfully extracted most of the tumor with no complications.  With her good health and young age, she tolerated such a major surgery extremely well and had a fairly quick recovery.  However, in order for the lymphoma to stay away and rid the rest of the residual cancer cells she will undergo a strict, high-dose chemotherapy regimen, in which she will need to be hospitalized for every couple weeks for the IV administration of and monitoring.  She is now in the best of hands with the most up-to-date knowledge on this specific cancer with an oncologist and team that specialize in lymphoma, at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN.   The chemo regimen will be in several cycles over the next few months,  each cycle is approximately 28 days apart. During the chemo cycles she will be an inpatient at Mayo. Each hospitalization lasts 4-7 days depending on how well her body is clearing the chemo drugs.  When not receiving chemo she will be at home in Hartley, IA.  The doctors have reassured us that she will tolerate the treatments fairly well with some treatable side effects.  Once she goes into remission (hopefully in a few months) then there will be plans made for her stem cell transplant at that point.  So far all of her lymphoma work-up has come back clear for no other areas of involvement or spread of the cancer.  She and our dad have been truly blessed by the amount of support, concern and help that has already been offered to them by many family and friends.  

Your prayers and words of encouragement are needed and greatly appreciated. We are trusting in God through this difficult time to lift our hearts and spirits to Him.  

***Thank you sooo much, everyone! She (and we) have been greatly blessed by all of the support.  Words cannot fully express our gratitude! ***