Hi Everyone!

It's been over 2 months since the last post, hope everyone had a fantastic end to their summer.

I'm writing this note sitting next to Mary Jo as she embarks on HER LAST CHEMO treatment. This is her 6th round and it has been a long and at times difficult journey. Mary has experienced most of the typical side effects from chemo, but has remained active and even has been back to working at QP since the school year started a few weeks ago. Amazing!

After today, there will be lots of celebration. Then on to the next step! Mary will be re-staged in a few weeks...more images will be taken, hopefully some biopsies. We are hoping for a significant reduction in her cancer stage at this time. In parallel to the re-staging, Mary will also be preparing for the next step in her care path, radiation. Mary will embark on a 27 fraction course to deliver radiation to her whole pelvis. She will be treated on a TomoTherapy device, technology that was born out of UW-Madison and commercialized by a local company, adding an exciting local flare to her care.  Mary will go to Turville Bay every day for ~5.5 weeks for 1 hour each visit. 

You may be asking yourself, why radiation after the surgery and chemo....weren't those enough! The answer is yes, all of those things are probably good enough to rid Mary of the cancer. But, one of Mary's wishes at the outset of this diagnosis was to take a warrior approach, by being as aggressive as possible and availing herself of every possible treatment. The literature does show increased odds of curing this specific disease by adding radiation to the care path, and so that is what Mary is doing. Witnessing the tenacity and endurance Mary has had deciding to go through with both of these difficult treatment modalities has been amazing to watch.

The next update will be after her re-staging, hoping to be able to share some more news worth of celebration then.

Take care everyone,

~Mary's Family