Mom had an appointment last week with Dr. Adrianne Mallen at Minnesota Oncology in Edina. Care has been transferred to Dr. Mallen after the retirement of Dr. Cathy Casey. We wish Dr. Casey the best – she was fabulous and we’re grateful! Dr. Mallen will be taking the lead on Mom’s care plan moving forward and treatments will be administered at Minnesota Oncology’s Waconia location under the supervision of Dr. Rousey.

Here's what we know –

·       The biopsy results show that the cancer has returned in her abdomen, and that it is in fact the exact same cancer that was present before. Same genetic composition.

·       The cancer is now considered a chronic condition and there will be lifelong chemo and/or maintenance treatments with breaks in between. 

·       Chemotherapy is scheduled to begin again on April 8. The initial plan is for 6 treatments, roughly a month apart. There will also be infusions of one of the drugs in between (at 2 weeks past the full chemo).

·       The chemo mix will be different than in the past – two of the same components, one different. Side effects might be different.

·       A PET scan will be done after 3 treatments, and again after 6. There will be bloodwork along the way to monitor progress. A baseline echocardiogram was done yesterday, and another one will be done in 3 months.

·       Another visit to Dr. Mallen will take place around the time of the last treatment in this series, but others could be scheduled as needed.

·       Dr. Mallen recommended connecting with palliative care to help with management of symptoms and side effects.

·       There have been some symptoms again lately (probably a bit of chest fluid building again, etc.) which the chemo will hopefully knock back down.

Mom will be pretty busy coming up and isn’t sure of how she’ll feel as the new treatments get underway. We know she’ll continue with all the things she normally does, as she can, but might be tired and need to lay low at times too. She knows this is all in God’s hands and is taking things as they come. We’ll post an update if significant changes in the plan come up, or after the first set of scans (after 3 treatments). Thanks for your support as always!