At the close of Monday’s City Council meeting, Mayor Gary Moore made an announcement that didn’t have anything to do with city business.
Moore announced that his wife Jeanna, who has been undergoing cancer treatment at the Mayo Clinic, is now in remission.
It was an emotional moment, and while Jeanna isn’t completely out of the woods (she’ll require annual screenings to make sure her cancer hasn’t returned), a doctor told her that “I expect you to live a long life, and not die from cancer.”
Jeanna’s story started in August of 2022, when she started having pains that suggested a problem with her kidneys.
She was told by doctors in Peoria that her kidneys were blocked, and they put in stents.
But Jeanna didn’t think that treatment was effective.
“It just didn’t feel right,” she said. “I felt like something was being missed.”
Jeanna was particularly concerned because several members of her family died of cancer. She wanted a second opinion, and wanted it from one of the world’s leading medical centers.
“I was determined to see if I could get into Mayo Clinic,” Jeanna said.
A month later she and Gary took the five-hour drive to Rochester, Minn. for her first appointment. The doctors took some tests, and found a tumor.
Jeanna said the tumor should have been spotted during a hysterectomy she had a few years ago, but it wasn’t.
It turned out that she had non-Hodgkins lymphoma, a cancer that’s usually found in a patient’s lymphatic system. Jeanna said she is one of only three Mayo Clinic patients ever who have had the disease elsewhere in their body.
“There’s no harm and no foul in getting a second opinion,” Jeanna said, and she added that she’s convinced that insisting on that second opinion is what led to her being in remission today.
Once the tumor was diagnosed, a round of chemotherapy treatments was begun.
While she had a bad reaction to the first treatment (the doctors had told her to expect that), subsequent treatments went better.
Jeanna said the medication she received didn’t cause her to lose her hair, as other chemotherapy drugs do.
She was able to lead a more or less normal life while her cancer treatment was going on. She continued her work with the Miss World Festival Queen pageant, and went to her job as activities director at Royal Oaks Health Care Center.
She also was involved with putting up the new banners on flagpoles along Kewanee’s main streets. (Unfortunately, some of the banners fell victim to the July15 tornadoes.)
Gary said the Moores’ health insurance provided good coverage for Jeanna’s medical expenses. But it didn’t cover expenses like mileage to Rochester, hotel stays and meals.
Megan Keel started a GoFundMe page for Jeanna that brought in more than $11,000.
“I’m grateful for our community,” Jeanna said. “They came together for us and got us through a real rough time.”
And she had this advice for people diagnosed with cancer:
“You can make it through this. It is not a death sentence anymore,” said Jeanna.
