June Update
Hello all,
It’s been a roller coaster the past 4 months. Both Jo and I have come here to write a blog update several times, and each time, we get overwhelmed by all the love and support and the emotion that comes with it. So, forgive us the long delay since the last update.
Billie Jo has had so many visitors: Mom, Aunt Marcie, Rusty, Cristina from Chicago, Heather Leanne from Florida, Rachel from Colorado, Aunt Trudy, and of course all the incredible local friends who stop by, bring food, and entertain Miles with adventures, plus Karie’s homemade cookies, beautiful handmade quilts from our hometown churches, and Bill’s sister, Liz, and parents, Bob and Ann, have been monumentally helpful in all of this. Between the painting, playing, planting, chemo parties, and laughter, she has felt so much love and support.
Not gonna lie… there have been some hard times the past 4 months, and emotions have run the gamut. Billie Jo’s CT Progress Scan #1 (after Chemo #3) showed the cancer decreasing (always good), but at a slower rate than expected. So, surgery was postponed, and she went through 3 more chemo sessions. Billie Jo also changed to a fully vegan and low-sugar diet the day after those CT results.
This last week, we traveled back to Mayo for CT Progress Scan #2. We were all nervous, but hopeful. And, thankfully, we have some positive news to report. So here‘s Billie Jo’s update that she recently sent to our family group chat:
“The overall theme of today’s big appointments is: good news! Thank goodness - I’ve been an emotional wreck this week.
The decrease in cancer from the chemo has been much better this time. The tumor that started all this on my right ovary appears to be gone on the scan🤞. But that could be different when they get in there.
There’s still granular/sand-like disease in my lung, but it has decreased a lot, and there’s still a small amount of fluid in the lining of the lung. They tell me not to focus on that right now, and we’ll reconvene after the post-surgery chemo (roughly August) to determine how much disease is left and how to manage it. They are leaving it in for now. We may decide to remove it later. Crossing that bridge later.
With the amount of disease decrease, they expect a slightly less invasive surgery than initially planned. It’s still a very invasive surgery with an incision from chest to pelvis. But the cancer does not appear to have gone into any organs or lymph nodes, which is a HUGE relief.
The bowel also seems unaffected on the scan. However, it may look different when they actually look at it. If there’s any disease at all on the bowel, they need to cut and resect it, which means a temporary bag for 2 months. Ugh!
The biggest concern going forward…With stage 4 cancer, it’s highly likely there’s microscopic disease that just hasn’t surfaced yet. So we hope 3 more post-surgery chemo sessions will help mitigate that, and then lots of monitoring for growth after that.
They’ll also test my cancer cells to see if my genetics qualify for a pill that has shown promise in slowing ovarian cancer growth. There are additional studies that I may qualify to join as well. We just don’t know what things will look like post-surgery.
But today, we celebrate a level of good news. Surgery is scheduled for 6/27, and I’ll be celebrating my 50th birthday in the hospital on 6/29🤷♀️🎉. Love you all so much!” Billie Jo
Love you all and so grateful for you! 🩷
Dawnita