2 down, 4 to go

Hi all! Happy almost St. Patrick's Day! Jane has finished two cycles of chemotherapy, with four more to go. The first one went well with no complications. The second one was this past Monday, March 9. Her ca-125 score is now down to 13, which is great news! It was up to 26 before surgery, so to have it come down that much with just one round of chemo is great. The doctors prescribed steroids for her to take the first few days after chemo, which is standard protocol now but it is new to Jane from last time. It gives her an energy buzz for the first few days, and then she starts to feel bad by Friday or Saturday after the Monday of chemo. She is very productive during these few days, and then crashes by the weekend. Last time she watched a couple of movies, and we predict the same plus some basketball for this weekend. She wanted us to thank everyone for all of the well wishes, cards, prayers, gifts, and other offers to help. She and Randy are both so appreciative! Please keep the prayers coming for continued complication-free cycles, and we'll keep you posted if anything changes.

Jane also would like to remind you to write your Senators and Representatives to ask for cancer funding. Here is the e-mail she sent me:

Now is the time to write for funding for ovarian cancer.  Survivors were in DC yesterday.

There is an easy form letter on facebook you can use: Ovarian Cancer National Alliance site, Take Action.

Thank you!

I did that form letter and my own:

Dear Congressman Loebsack,  

I have Ovarian Cancer.  I was diagnosed in Dec, 2011, at Stage 3C. I was cancer-free for 2.5 years.  It is back now.  I had more surgery in January, and I am now doing 5 months of chemo again.  Ovarian cancer always comes back.  Statistically, I only have a 44% chance of being alive next year, 2016.  That is the 5 year survival rate.  If we had a screening test for Ovarian Cancer like we do for cervical cancer, prostate cancer, and mammograms for breast cancer, we would be diagnosed at stage 1 or 2 and have a 92% survival rate!  It is 2015, and we don't have a screening test for Ovarian Cancer that kills over 14,000 women in the United states every year!  We need monies to go to research for this killer of our daughters, mothers, sisters, aunts, grandmothers, and friends.

This year, we had 2 new drugs approved for Ovarian Cancer.  These are the first new drugs in 30 years for Ovarian Cancer!

We need research monies for Ovarian Cancer.

I beg you to support the following:

- $20 million for the Department of Defense Congressionally Directed Medical Research Program - Ovarian Cancer Research Program

- $7.5 million for the Ovarian Cancer Control Initiative at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)

- $5.5 million for Johanna's Law at the CDC

- Robust National Cancer Institute funding, ideally reaching the Professional Judgement budget of $5.75 billion

Thank you.

Sincerely,

Mary Fleming