Jorie’s Story

Site created on December 18, 2023

Welcome to our CaringBridge website. We are using it to keep family and friends updated in one place.  

In October, Jorie developed a bump above her left eyebrow, and a swollen lymph node in her neck.   Biopsies revealed that these were evidence of Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma.   Within a matter of weeks, successive MRIs revealed a lesion/tumor developing in her brain, and additional signs of lesions developing elsewhere in her brain.   

Jorie began radiation treatment on the eyebrow mass (which, amazingly, went away in a couple of days), followed by systemic chemotherapy to fight any progression of the Lymphoma throughout her body.  More significantly, Jorie is about to embark on CAR-T therapy, a form of immunotherapy that teaches her own immune system to recognize and fight the lymphoma that it is currently ignoring. 

Jorie is being cared for by an amazing inter-disciplinary team of doctors.  Her oncology team is based at the Moore's Cancer Center, on the UCSD Health campus in La Jolla, Ca.   When Jorie is in-patient, she's at the Jacob's Medical Center on the same campus, where they have an entire floor related care and treatment of  BMT (Bone Marrow Transplant) and blood cancer patients.

Below is a Sunday Morning segment that we found to be helpful in understanding the CAR-T therapy if you are interested in learning about this treatment. 
https://youtu.be/wwN_hxzhDp0?si=spTe0hnQRB3lb1Rv 

 We appreciate your support and words of hope and encouragement.

Newest Update

Journal entry by Tom Rankin

We've been remiss in updating everyone, so today seems like a particularly fitting time to do so.

First and very celebratory, Jorie marked the completion of her 64th lap around the sun today.  Woohoo!

Next and extremely happily, Jorie has been re-staged with a battery of diagnostics imagery (CT, PET, MRI), and they all showed her to be clear of any evident signs of lymphoma!  Woohoo doubly!

Jor continues her physical reconditioning, and is being rewarded by being able to move around the house quite comfortably without any aid.  She's also doing laps around our neighborhood using her 4-wheeled walker, but those days will soon pass, and she'll be aid-free everywhere.

She is still battling her pulmonary issues, with the most challenging part being a persnickety cough that just won't completely go away.  But the more active she becomes, I'm optimistic that these issues will diminish.  But the dreaded "it takes time" mantra appears to be in play.

So, a lot of great news to report, with more to come we're sure!

 

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