Marnel Groebner

May 2022

Update to In Her Own Words dated April 2016. Read 2016’s here.

In 2010, at the age of 50, I retired. I was active, ate healthy and was in pretty good shape. My only complaint was a nagging backache I had for a couple of years. I had tried doctors, chiropractors, massage therapy, physical therapy, and yoga, but nothing helped.

In March 2012, I suddenly began feeling pain in my lower abdomen. The pain was so severe I couldn’t stand up straight. Thinking it was appendicitis, the emergency room doctor ordered a CT scan. That’s when the 9cm tumor was discovered on my right ovary. It was the tumor causing the backaches.

For the next 2 ½ years, I felt caught up in the grueling dance. The steps included surgical removal of the ovarian tumor, recurrence in my mesentery, four separate regimens of chemotherapy, 28 treatments of targeted radiation,  and three blood transfusions. But the recurrent tumor continued to grow. In fact, it wrapped around a loop of small intestine causing three partial bowel obstructions for which I was hospitalized. Offered no hope by my gynecologic oncologist, I prepared to say goodbye to my family.

In November of 2014, I heard of a new clinical trial from a fellow survivor. The trial was for ‘whole body hyperthermia.’  With nothing to lose, I flew to San Jose to meet with the gynecologic oncologist heading up the trial. After seeing my latest CT scan, he recommended surgical removal of the tumor followed by HIPEC (Hyperthermic Intraperitoneal Chemotherapy).

On December 23rd, 2014, I underwent surgery to remove the tumor, three feet of small intestine and HIPEC.

The recovery from the surgery was grueling,  but I truly believe the surgery and my new doctor saved my life.

I am now enjoying my six grandchildren, my doodle puppies, traveling with my husband, quilting, playing pickleball and most of all, my new dance partner, NED (No Evidence of Disease).

Update:

After nearly six years of being cancer free, I began to have fevers. In October of 2020, I went to urgent care only to be given antibiotics. After my 3rd trip to urgent care, I asked the doctor to run labs on my blood. I had been noticing quite a few bruises. Later that day, the doctor called and recommended I go to the ER. My blood counts were nearly zero.

That started my month long stay in the hospital in Las Vegas which included bone marrow biopsies and daily blood tests. The diagnosis was AML (Acute Myeloid Leukemia). I was told they would be starting chemo; but because of all of the chemo I had for the ovarian cancer, I was not a candidate for a bone marrow transplant. In fact, the prior chemo is what has caused the AML. The hope was to get me into remission, but the cancer would certainly come back again.

I got to remission fairly quickly (2-3 weeks) and continued on maintenance chemo for another five months. At that point I decided to get a second opinion and drove to Tucson, AZ, to meet with the head of University of Arizona BMT (Bone Marrow Transplant) program. He said my only chance at a cure was a BMT. I had nothing to lose and decided to go for it. In May, we moved to Tucson to a 1 bedroom apartment. I had many, many tests while waiting for my transplant. I was told there were no matches on the BMT registry, but one of my children could possibly be a match. On June 29th, (my re-birthday) my youngest daughter became my donor – pictured below.

I spent 5 weeks in the hospital feeling pretty crummy. It has been quite the journey and am still recovering. But I am 100% engrafted with my daughter’s bone marrow and almost to my 1st re-birthday. I have just started getting my childhood vaccines and now have a new blood type.

Please be your own advocate and get those 2nd opinions. Also, pay attention to your body. I suspected those bruises were not normal. Finally, enjoy every single day because we just don’t know how many more we have.