Welcome to our CaringBridge website. We've created it to keep friends and family updated about Mary. Please read "My Story".

Visit often to read the latest journal entries and write Mary a note in the guestbook.



Mary, 45 yrs old, found out on 4/28 that she had kidney cancer that had spread to the lungs. She went in to the doctor originally due to what she thought was a lingering cold. She was fatigued. She had been helping her son Nikolas train for the Bellin Run and she noticed she couldn't run as far as she used to without getting winded. She was first diagnosed with pneumonia, then after they reviewed her blood work and xrays, she was called in for more tests and then the cancer was discovered. She had over 30 spots in her lungs. April 28 was her last day at work for this past school year. Mary is an 8th grade teacher at the Seymour Middle School.

Since Mary's initial diagnosis, she had her left kidney removed. When they did the pathology report on the tumor, it was discovered that she has a very rare form of kidney cancer - chromophobe renal cell cancer with 90% sarcomatoid features. Sarcomatoid is the key word in Mary's condition. It means the cancer is very aggressive. Kidney cancer is rare to begin with, chromophobe is even rarer and to have it be sarcomatoid is extremely rare. Mary is being treated by a wonderful lady, Dr. Nancy Davis at the Vince Lombardi Cancer Clinic at Aurora Baycare Medical Center. There is no conventional treatment to get rid of this kind of cancer. Mary went to the Mayo Clinic for a 2nd opinion and was told the same thing. 

Mayo did tell Mary of a clinical trial that she could possibly try, but they were doing the same trial at Froedtert in Milwaukee so if Mary wanted to do the trial, she could do it in Milwaukee vs. having to drive to Minnesota. Mary did go to Froedtert to check into the trial. Over a course of several days, Mary was tested there. She needed a blood transfusion to be eligible for the trial because her hemoglobin was so low. She had the transfusion done in Green Bay and while the transfusion was going on, she had a heart episode where her heart started pounding extremely fast (pulse was almost 200). She was rushed to the ER. They had to shoot her up with a drug that dropped her heart rate back to normal (92) within seconds. Then went back to Froedtert for more testing. They did an MRI of the liver and found that the cancer had now spread there. Her kidney function and liver numbers were not the greatest, so she was no longer eligible for the trial. Dr. Menon at Froedtert said because the cancer had spread so much within such a short time, it is doing what the name said it would and didn't give Mary much time. 

Mary came back to Green Bay and started seeing Dr. Nancy Davis as of 5/31. She had a couple more heart episodes since then, another blood transfusion that went fine, was rushed by ambulance to the ER due to chest pain which ended up being caused by a 2" x 2" tumor in bottom of the lung that was pressing on the nerve endings, so they put her on Percocet and pain patches. Decided to radiate that big spot to shrink it to stop the pain. After 10 radiation treatments on her left lung, they found out that the cancer has now spread to the brain. She also started having pains in her right side, where there is another big tumor. It was decided to radiate that spot as well, and the brain. There were 20 treatments total to the left lung, 5 to the right lung and 10 to the brain. Mary was put on steriods to help reduce the inflammation, which will alleviate pain and headaches. Mary's kidney & liver functions went back to normal.

Once the cancer had spread to the brain, there was a heavy conversation with Dr. Davis and she indicated that the time clock had not changed.  As Mary was told way back when, there is nothing they can do to treat the cancer. They can only treat the symptoms and help with the pain. Deciding not to give up hope, Kim did some research for Mary and found a clinic (Hope4Cancer in Mexico) that has treated Stage IV patients with kidney cancer and sarcamatoid cancers and has had a 70% success rate in which the patients live 5 times longer (or more) than their initial pronosis and 30% of those are in remission. Mary & Kim did a phone consultation with  Dr. Tony and were very impressed with him. He gave some very good advice as to simple things she could start immediately at home to help her...and they worked!!! Her blood work at the next Dr. appt. proved it. Mary & Bruce made the decision to go to the Hope4Cancer and see what Dr. Tony can do for Mary.

Mary and Bruce will be married 14 years in December. Makenzy will be 18 in December. Nikolas is 12 and Casey is 11.

Mary leaves Sunday 8/14. Her first day of treatment is 8/15. She will be there for 17 days. We will fly back on Sept. 1.  We will be picked up at the San Diego airport by their shuttle driver, whose name is Jesus. It is so great that Jesus will be with us on our trip!!