Mary-Bye Pickering had Stage III melanoma in 1991. She lived in the Flathead Valley of Montana and had gone to a small community hospital for her care. As a single mother with two children, having cancer in a rural area was a big deal.

“I had three-quarters of my deltoid muscle removed,” Mary-Bye recalls. “I had just started a new job, too. I had the operation in October on a Friday and was back to work on Monday.”

By 2003, Mary-Bye was in her 60s and decided to retire in Bothell, Washington to be close to her oldest daughter’s family. In 2006 she saw her primary care doctor for a pap smear.

“I told the doctor I was having my monthly and wouldn’t be able to have the smear. He was extremely concerned,” Mary-Bye recalls. “The next day he sent me to a gynecologist for a biopsy. That’s when I found out I had uterine cancer.”

The gynecologist referred her to Seattle Cancer Care Alliance.

“I called SCCA that day and got in to see Dr. Ron Swensen. That man saved my life, in more ways than one,” Mary-Bye says.

Mary-Bye recalls her first meeting with Dr. Swensen. “He told me he had a five-point plan for healing.”

The five points were: 1) stay warm; 2) stay ahead of the pain; 3) remove or delegate the details of stress from your life; 4) you are part of the healthcare team, not just a patient; 5) surround yourself with a good support system.

“Dr. Swenson was so powerful, but humble. He said everyone at SCCA was part of my support team, too,” Mary-Bye says.

Treatment

Mary-Bye’s daughter and son-in-law were caregivers for Mary-Bye after she had surgery to remove her female organs and her femoral lymph nodes. “I had the easiest recovery!” she says. “Everyone at SCCA was so positive and loving. The oncology nurses were amazing at UW Medical Center. They modeled the definition of nursing I’d learned so many years ago: ‘love made visible.’”

After surgery, Mary-Bye had chemotherapy for over six months. Following surgery in May 2006, Mary-Bye went to see Dr. Swensen every three months. He monitored her lupus, too, which strangely enough went into remission after her chemotherapy treatment. She’s still in remission five years later.

Cancer Returns

In August 2009, Mary-Bye began having severe abdominal pain. She was all set to go on a cruise that next month, September, but the pain was bad enough that she canceled her trip.

In December after several months of inconclusive tests by her primary care physician she went to see Dr. Swensen for her six-month checkup.

“When he saw me he said, ‘Mary-Bye, there’s no spark in your eyes.’ He said first we would take care of my exam and then we would find out what was causing my pain,” Mary-Bye says.

“Dr. Swensen told me to prepare to go back into the hospital at the end of the week, but that if I got a fever before then, I should let him know immediately,” Mary-Bye says. The very next day, she went into shock from septicemia.

“Dr. Swenson thought it was a colon cancer, but he didn’t say anything at the time. He just admitted me to his floor (gynecologic cancers),” Mary-Bye says.

After the septicemia cleared up, a colonoscopy indicated there was a tumor in the colon that appeared to be malignant. Mary-Bye had surgery for her colon cancer and then chemotherapy. The biopsies confirmed a high level Stage III colon cancer.

“I always felt safe when Dr. Swensen was taking care of me,” Mary-Bye says. “When he moved to California, I cried for two days.”  She now sees Dr. Andrew Coveler for her GI follow-up care.

Mary-Bye only needs to have a colonoscopy once a year now and is doing well she says. “Having a positive attitude is everything. Cancer loves stress; it affects everything in your body. Having total confidence in my new oncology team gives me real peace of mind.”

Dr. Swensen ran a tight ship. Mary-Bye says, “He was there every time I needed to see him. He never missed a meeting with me and was always on time. He inspired confidence the moment I met him. Every doc I have in the UW/SCCA system treats me so well. I don’t have one negative thing to say. SCCA and UW have saved my life twice now.”