Journal entry by Pat Dienslake —
Marcy and I met with her oncologist at the Illinois Cancer Center in Bloomington last week to review the latest CT scan. Dr Kumar provided feedback from the radiologist report on the scan. The scan is showing build up in fluid in outer linings of lungs and in the abdomen. This is accompanied by some thickening of the tumorous cancer lining the abdomen. Conclusion is existing chemo is no longer effective. Illinois Cancer Center suggested we meet with Mayo and we agreed, to discuss next steps. We met with Dr Bible at Mayo Clinic yesterday. Marcy has a high level of comfort knowing Mayo is leading the decisions on the therapy. Bible agrees there is tumor growth and we need to move to a level 3 treatment. He discussed in detail a longer term plan depending on the effectiveness of the level 3 therapy which will be Immunotherapy. Marcy will begin Immunotherapy this week in Bloomington. Mayo has done clinical trials and this therapy has a 20% chance of being effective in reducing tumor growth and 40% chance of stable conditions. The plan will be to follow this level 3 therapy with a "old school" chemo treatment according to Dr Bible. This level 4 treatment is a more current pattern used by Mayo with some very positive results. Dr Bible will be retiring at year end. Our new oncologist will be Dr. Molina. He has worked with Dr Bible for 30 years. He is a specialist in lung cancers and mesothelioma cancer. He is a PHD as well. My wife is simply amazing. She maintains her as usual positive attitude and always caring more about others than herself. Apologize for lack of updates in a while but as always appreciate all prayers and thoughts.
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