Marquette

After several phone calls between the tribal health clinic, the Mayo Clinic, and Marquette General Hospital's Cancer Center, we have arranged for an appointment in Marquette, which is just about an hour drive from Baraga.

This appointment is on January 4 at 2:25 p.m. At the appointment Ma will meet with Dr. Nukala for a consult. Because the nurses at the Cancer Center at Marquette won't just take her in for treatment without having one of their doctors review Ma's case, they have these consults. Since Dr. Hartmann at Mayo has already faxed the treatment instructions along with medical history, the doctor in Marquette should be up to speed.

So by the end of the consult, we should have a treatment scheduled in Marquette on or close to January 11, which keeps Ma on her monthly schedule per Dr. Hartmann's instructions and treatment plan.

Mayo Report

Yesterday, despite being very long, turned out to be a good day.

Mavis and Ma started out from Minneapolis at about 6:30 a.m. in order to make an 8:30 a.m. appointment for blood tests. They were on schedule until a traffic jam slowed them down just outside of Rochester. The roads were icy and so apparently there was a car accident. Hopefully nobody got seriously hurt. Mavis and Ma arrived about ten minutes late, but the ladies at the desk on Gonda 10 were cool and took her right in.

Then after all the rushing, it was time to wait. The appointment with Dr. Hartmann wasn't until 12:45 so they did some hanging out in the lounge, walking around, and while they were doing that, Mave took this picture of Ma in front of a bunch of pointsetta plants arranged to look like a christmas tree. What a great picture!

At the appointment with Dr. Hartmann, she said that Ma is responding very well to the Doxil treatment and the plan is to continue with the treatments. Her CA-125 marker is down from October and all of her other blood work looked good. Since traveling in the winter from the U.P. is totally treacherous, Dr. Hartmann agreed to let Ma take her January and February treatments closer to home at Marquette General in the U.P. We'll have to set those up with the oncology department there. Then the next appointment with Dr. Hartmann at the Mayo Clinic will be on March 11.

After meeting with Dr. Hartmann, the chemo appointment was next at 3:00 p.m. The nurses started the treatment a little late but the Doxil takes just over an hour to drip, so they could hit the road and make it back to Minneapolis at a reasonable hour.

They made it back to Minneapolis at about 7:00 p.m. So it was a long and grueling day but a good one!

Minneapolis

Today Ma flew from the Houghton airport over to Minneapolis. It was a smooth and short flight.

Early tomorrow morning, she is heading over with Mavis to the Mayo Clinic for her appointments for blood tests and a meeting with Dr. Hartmann. Chemotherapy is scheduled for the afternoon.

So it will be a long day tomorrow.