Atlas Twp.- Mary Tison lives for her grandchildren.
Literally.
Tison, 59, has fought a nearly 6-year battle with cancer. When she feels like giving up, her husband, Larry, will ask her, ‘Do you want to be around your grandkids or don’t ya??
The answer is always yes. In hopes that she can be around her 13 grandchildren for years to come, a bone marrow drive will be from 2 p.m.-8 p.m., Aug. 30 at Ortonville Baptist Church, 173 Church St.
Tison and her husband moved to Ortonville in 1972 to raise their three children. After their children had all married, the Tisons moved to Lewiston for five years, but in November of 1999 decided to return because they wanted to be around their children and grandchildren. Only a few weeks later, Tison would make a discovery that would change her life.
‘I never knew the word fear, or experienced fear, until Dec. 8, 1999,? wrote Tison in a journal titled, ‘A Cancer Journey: Walking with God? that she hopes to get published. ‘That is the day that I discovered a lump on my right breast. Suddenly, in the pit of my stomach I could feel an emotion stirring in there that I didn’t like at all. There was one word that created this feeling in my stomach and that was the possibility that the lump was cancer… The next day, I went to the doctor, which started a journey that I didn’t want to go on.?
Tison had a lumpectomy and chemotherapy and radiation treatment, but the following November, the cancer had returned. She underwent a mastectomy.
In March 2001, lumps were recurring at the site of the scars. Her Karmanos Cancer Institute specialist told her her entire chest was contaminated with cancer. A cyclotron machine was used to break up cells and then regular radiation was used to kill the cancer cells. Tison had already had radiation and doctors don’t like to radiate in the same area more than once, but they had no choice. Tison wound up with second and third-degree burns from the radiation and lots of dead tissue. The doctors would scrape the tissue away to promote healing, but it didn’t work. The next step was skin-flap surgery, in which doctors took muscle from her stomach to fill in the hole in her chest where they had scraped dead tissue from.
‘I asked them while they were doing it if they could do a tummy tuck, too, but they wouldn’t,? smiles Tison.
She was recuperating at home ten days after the surgery when she pulled a lever on her recliner and her chest wall opened.
‘There was blood and tissue everywhere,? recalls Tison, who was alone at the time. ‘I called my daughter-in-law who lives down the road to take me to the emergency room… I didn’t know if I was bleeding to death.?
They went to North Oakland Medical Center in Pontiac, where Tison’s doctors told her she had a major infection in her chest. A doctor pushed on the skin flap and chest wall to get the infection out. She was given antibiotics and was able to avoid surgery. However, a month later in December 2001, she found a lump under her left arm– the opposite side of where she’d had all her previous problems. She was again scheduled for surgery, but it was called off. The doctors told her they wanted to do a peripheral blood stem cell transplant.
She began three months of chemotherapy to shrink the lump. In May 2002 she was hooked up to a machine, her blood was taken and stem cells separated from it. The stem cells were then frozen. She was ready for the transplant. They killed her immune system with high-dosage chemotherapy for five days, let her rest the sixth day and then on the seventh day they reinfused her stem cells.
‘It’s a clean slate,? says Tison.
It took eight days after being reinfused for Tison’s immune system to return. She stayed in the hospital for a month, with her husband by her side the whole time.
‘When you go through the transplant you need a 24-hour caregiver,? Tison says. ‘I told them I wanted my husband. I appreciate him and his faithfulness in his attendance to me. He showed me what loyalty and devotion was.?
When she left the hospital, the doctors had more instructions– one of which she couldn’t follow.
‘They told me to stay away from the grandkids, but you can’t keep me from my grandkids,? says Tison.
It took Tison about a year to get back to ‘normal,? although she says she doesn’t know what that is anymore.
After more radiation treatment, Tison thought she was in the clear when tests for cancer came back negative. She went from September 2002 until October 2004 without any problems. But she was then diagnosed with myelodysplasia, a blood disease in which a person’s bone marrow does not produce enought red blood cells and platelets. Since October, Tison has been checked every week and gives herself injections as part of her treatment.
But on June 30, following a biopsy, she received devastating news– her disease was progressing, she is very close to having acute leukemia.
‘I need a donor because my own bone marrow is infected,? Tison said. ‘There is a 30-percent success rate if I get a transplant. Not real good, but the alternative isn’t either.?
In her journal, Tison wrote about her struggles and how God gave her strength and power to get through it. She wrote of her chemotherapy and how she lost her hair in clumps until she couldn’t take it anymore and rubbed her hair off the top of her head in the shower one day, leaving her with hair only on the sides and for the first time in her life, her husband had more hair than she did.
‘He said I had a nice-shaped head,? recalls Tison.
She’s had days where she’s cried out of frustration, but she says she feels optimistic and positive. Her grandchildren ask her, ‘Are you better now, Grandma??
With a donor transplant, she is confident she will be able to answer that question with ‘Yes.?
A bone marrow drive for Mary Tison will be from 2 p.m.- 8 p.m. at Ortonville Baptist Church. The initial testing for donors (ages 18-60) is a finger prick and blood test for bone marrow, which costs $65. Susan Pitser, drive organizer, says anyone unable to be tested is welcome to make a donation. Checks can be made payable to the National Marrow Donor Program. Mail to Ortonville Baptist Church, P.O. Box 1010, Ortonville, Mich. 48462. For more information, call Pitser at (248) 627-4479.