Vince Rittmiller

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.  Vince was diagnosed with terminal mesenteric carcinomatosis August 28, 2016.   This metastatic cancer  is most probably due to appendix cancer.  This cancer is very rare especially for men.  It is most commonly seen in women who had ovarian cancer.  Vince started chemotherapy treatments in September 2016 and has had treatments every 2 weeks.   The last 6 weeks have been a challenge.  He has been hospitalized twice for bowel obstructions caused by the cancer and once for uncontrolled vomiting.   Most recently Vince was hospitalized in Essentia Health Deer River on 7/6 for his second bowel obstruction and then was diagnosed with aspiration pneumonia due to vomiting from the obstruction.    On  7/12 Vince was admitted to Methodist Hospital in Mayo for a higher level of care and second opinion for his uncontrolled pain and edema.   Vince received encouraging news from oncology that his bowel obstruction symptoms indicated that his current FOLFIRI regimen chemotherapy was no longer working and with a change to FOLFOX regimen the hope is that he will respond and get a better quality of life.  The CT scans continue to show no metastasis to major organs or bones.  Positive and blessed news!  Vince received the new FOLFOX chemotherapy this week.