Support Mary's Healing Journey Together

On April 1st, 2022 Mary Fillbrandt was diagnosed with Chronic myelomonocytic leukemia (CMML). This form of leukemia can only be cured through a bone marrow transplant. On November 4th, 2022 Mary found out the cancer had progressed to Acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Mary was admitted to the hospital to receive heavy doses of chemo. Over the next two months, she received countless blood products as her body became strong enough for the transplant. During this time, she and Bruce stayed in Rochester to be close to the Mayo Clinic.

On December 29th, 2022 Mary received a bone marrow transplant. She spent the next three months living in Rochester recovering from the transplant and going to daily appointments. Mary came home at the end of March, but was still going to Rochester 1 - 2 times a week for appointments.

Over the summer, these appointments became less frequent, but she still needed to go down for blood draws twice a week. She also began rounds of maintenance chemo requiring daily visits to Rochester 6 days a week, every 6 weeks.

On February 9th, 2024 Mary received additional donor cells at the urging of her doctors to ensure the leukemia would be kept at bay. On April 2nd we received news that Mary's cells were 100% donor. However, Mary woke up on the 3rd with yellow eyes. We quickly drove down to Mayo and Mary was diagnosed with Stage 4 Graft vs. Host of the Liver. This required hospitalization to try and get her liver to become healthy.

As Mary's liver numbers continued to stay elevated, a port was placed to allow Mary to receive a treatment to try and help her liver numbers come down. Luckily, after the port was placed, Mary's numbers came down on their own with the help of medications.

Over the next couple of months Mary became weaker. We thought this was due to the high level of Prednisone Mary had been on for an extended amount of time. On July 18th, at a regular check up appointment, doctors found an infection in Mary's port. Having had open heart surgery and a valve replacement in 2019, everyone quickly became concerned.

After tests, it was found that Mary had a mass in her heart. She was diagnosed with endocarditis and admitted to the hospital. Heart surgery was necessary for survival.

Mary had intensive open heart surgery on July 23rd. The surgery lasted 9 hours but was successful, but she would also need a pacemaker implanted. Mary developed pneumonia and had to be placed on a breathing tube on July 19th. She spent the next week and a half with the breathing tube in place while her body worked to heal and for her to wake up.

Mary is now in the recovery phase following her heart surgery. She has developed critical illness myopathy and is unable to walk or move to her full extent. Over the next several weeks she will be inpatient at rehabilitation facilities as her brain works to reroute itself to all her muscles.

During this time, Mary's family has been with her. Bruce has filed for FMLA to ensure he can be with her during this time. As one can imagine, none of this has come without great cost from medical bills, food and lodging costs, and fuel. Any amount is greatly appreciated as our family navigates this newest challenge helping Mary get better so she can come home and do everything she loves: being with family and pets, cooking and baking, and shopping.