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MIFFLINTOWN – Mary Jo Barner knows what cancer can do. It can come back again and again. It can cause fear and leave families wondering if this is a last opportunity at every activity.
Barner also knows what cancer cannot do, and she knows what Jesus Christ can do.
Barner’s husband, Keith, has faced three rounds of brain cancer in 16 years. She will share their journey at 6 p.m. this evening at the Central Juniata Emergency Medical Services building in Mifflintown. It is the annual Cancer Banquet hosted by Heavenbound Church in Mifflintown, aimed at providing a free meal and encouragement for those whose lives have been impacted by a cancer diagnosis.
The couple has lived Susquehanna Township, Juniata County -a Liverpool address – for several years. It was in 2000 when Keith was 39 years old and had repeatedly felt dizzy at work. Mary Jo insisted he see a doctor. At first it was assumed Keith had vertigo. But when he told his doctor he had some issues with his vision, an MRI was scheduled.
“The morning after that MRI I received a call that I had to get my husband to the emergency room as soon as possible because they found a little something on the MRI.”
Mary Jo was working in Kreamer, Snyder County, at the time. She drove to Oriental and picked up Keith at work and made the trip to Williamsport.
The doctor came into the room, Mary Jo recalled, and told the couple he would likely be able to operate within two weeks.
The couple was unsure what he was talking about.
When Keith asked him what he meant by that, the doctor asked them what they had been told.
Mary Jo replied that the nurse who called mentioned “a little something” on the MRI.
“I’ll never forget his response,” Mary Jo said of the doctor, “He said, ‘A little something? Sir, you have a massive brain tumor and it must come out.'”
Massive was the description of the tumor the size of a small grapefruit pressing on the right side of his forehead.
“The hardest part was telling our kids,” Mary Jo said. Sixteen years ago their children, Ben, Joe and Mary Beth were ages 10, 8 and 6 years old.
The next two weeks were frightening for the mom of three as she tried to make sense of what was happening. Mary Jo had the task of going next door to her mother-in-law’s home every evening to help her apply eye drops. A dream Mary Jo had always had was to one day see the Northern Lights.
One night while making the journey across the lawn, she looked up and there was her dream in the sky. She had seen the Northern Lights during the most difficult time of her life.
“I just smiled and whispered, ‘Thank you, God.'”
The surgery took five hours to complete. As Mary Jo sat with her parents and in-laws in the waiting room, the doctor returned with a social worker beside him.
“It was a grade four – the worst kind – glioblastoma. It was very large and very mushy,” Mary Jo said.
Her mother asked the doctor for a prognosis.
“Two months to two years.”
Mary Jo paused as she said, “I thought I was taking my husband home to die.”
Over a three week period Keith received chemotherapy and radiation. The tumor had left “finger-like projections” of the tumor inside the brain that could not be removed.
When the brain was examined through another MRI, the doctor declared he did not understand it, but the finger-like projections were gone. There was no sign there was a tumor in the brain.
To be safe, chemotherapy continued for a year. Keith returned to work within five months. Mary Jo said he never missed a full day of work after that period. He would work a half day, go to the hospital for radiation, and do it all over again.
“He never even lost any hair,” Mary Jo said.
Every year for the next seven years an MRI was conducted. And every year it was clear.
After five years he was considered cured. The doctor gave Keith the option to continue returning for MRIs. He chose to keep going.
In 2007, the doctor once again walked into the room to reveal the MRI results.
“There’s another tumor,” he said to the couple, who were again in shock.
It was not as large this time, however. The dime size tumor was in the same location. Once again they had to tell their children now ages 17, 15 and 13.
The tumor was removed and it was not cancerous, which the doctor found very unusual.
“It was a blip. And life went on,” Mary Jo said.
In November, 2014, Keith gave Mary Jo her Christmas present early. Besides seeing the Northern Lights, she had always wanted to see the country music couple Joey and Rory in concert.
Following the concert in Tennessee, the Barners were inside a gift shop at the airport.
“Keith walked away from me … he was staring into space … like he was zoned out.” Mary Jo ran after him and had him sit down.
She asked her husband where he was going. His eyes were shifting back and forth as he told her, “I’m going home.”
“I knew at that moment it was time for another MRI,” she said.
On Jan. 5 of last year the doctor declared there indeed was one more tumor. In April a biopsy revealed a grade two slow growing tumor – once again in the forehead.
They began looking at other options for treatment. The Barners visited Johns Hopkins and the Cancer Treatment Center of America in Chicago.
All of the specialists suggested the same thing. The only option was chemo, but the tumor was slow growing. The chemo would only work for two years, so doctors suggested they hold off.
An MRI was conducted every three months. In September, Mary Jo said, the MRI revealed, “This tumor just took off. It had grown and there were multiple tumors throughout the brain.”
The Barners then ended up seeking treatment at Penn State Hershey Medical Center. A piece of the tumor was taken and it was revealed it was once again a grade four. If the tumor is that serious, the patient qualifies for clinical trials.
Keith began using a new form of chemotherapy. The result was shrinking tumors. Some of the tumors had even disappeared. Over more time, the tumors continued to shrink and even more disappeared.
He has just begun a series of taking chemotherapy pills for five days. Another MRI is scheduled on April 27.
“I’m going to share at the banquet about what cancer can do, and I am going to share what Christ can do,” Mary Jo said.
Over those 16 years, Mary Jo spent 10 years teaching first grade at Juniata Mennonite School, where her children each graduated. Keith witnessed each graduation, the marriages of all three children, and the births of two granddaughters.
Their story is not over yet, she said. And she wants people facing cancer in their family to know God is bigger than the diagnosis.