By Renae Hoffmann Walker
You have three weeks to live.
That’s what Kristine Montgomery was told in the middle of the night after she felt pain in her stomach and went to the emergency room alone.
“After I had a CAT scan, the doctors came in and told me I had stage four cancer and only three weeks to live,” recalls Kristine. “They told me to get my daughters here (from Fargo) as soon as possible. I was all by myself; I didn’t know what to do. It was really, really scary and the pain kept getting worse and worse so I was sent to Mayo in an ambulance. I don’t remember much; I was on so many pain meds. I started to die in the ambulance and my kidneys stopped, so I had to have dialysis at Mayo. Then they drained the fluid from my stomach.
“My mom flew in (from Las Vegas) and they put up the CAT scan and said it didn’t look good. But when the doctor got in there, she did an amazing job. She did so much and cut so well; she cut the lining in my stomach because cancer grabs onto the lining and spreads fast. I had a tumor the size of a football in my stomach but the cancer hadn’t spread. It turned out to be stage two ovarian cancer. She was shocked too.”
Kristine admits she had noticed that her stomach was getting bigger, but discounted it as middle age spread, even though the extra “weight” was only in her middle. At one time she recalled a biography she’d read about Gilda Radner from Saturday Night Live. Radner died of ovarian cancer in 1989. Like Kristine, she too had noticed her pants didn’t fit, but she wasn’t gaining weight anywhere else. Kristine even did some online research, but she didn’t go to the doctor.
“Ovarian cancer is a silent cancer; it likes to travel so you don’t know where it hides,” explains Kristine. “No one in my family has had it, but my daughters are now going to go through genetic testing.”
Kristine decided to do this article for two reasons: to inspire women to take care of their bodies and to thank all of the people who have and continue to help her through her cancer journey.
“I would say to all women, regardless of their age, go in and get checked. It’s your health and the sooner you catch something the better,” she says. “Also, when help is offered, take it. Use their strength because you will be weak.”
Kristine was diagnosed in January 2016. She had her last chemo treatment in July and will have a checkup this month. She was gone from her job as a teacher at Legacy High School until May, when she returned part time. Co-worker Donna Carter came and held her hand when she was alone in the ER in Bismarck that fateful night. Her mother, grown daughters, Teresa and Abby, friends, and family stayed with her and helped during her recovery at home. When she returned to work, Kristine says she was stunned by the outpouring of support.
“When I was diagnosed, Legacy decided to sell t-shirts that said ‘I think the world of you’ because I teach Global Studies,” she says. “When I came back, we had an academic pep rally and I was supposed to talk about the SADD club I advise. Everyone was wearing their shirts and the kids stood up and cheered for me—it was overwhelming.”
Kristine laughs as she recalls stories of gangly 14-year-old boys not being afraid to give her a hug, about her former Simle student and LHS department chair, Matt Thorton, doing research on female cancers, about Tom Bushaw hawking t-shirts in his loud voice, and about going bald.
“It is really sad, but I’m starting to get over it!”
Kristine is a native of Fort Yates and has a master’s degree in curriculum and instruction. Her hobbies are reading and watching old black and white films on Turner Classic Movies (TCM). But her passion is teaching.
“I haven’t had a behavior problem in my classroom for so long—I can’t remember. I show them respect, I model that, and they give it back. If one student gets out of line another usually takes care of it,” she says with pride. “When people talk negatively about kids, I wish they could see them like I do. They are such good people and I’m so proud of them. I always tell them we are in this life together; we are a village. One of my students, KayDee Wescom, made me a blanket and sent texts to see how I was doing. She lost her mother to cancer a few months before I was diagnosed. That must have been very hard for her and yet she reached out.”
KayDee’s mom, Myla Wescom taught special education for 19 years at Bismarck High, Solheim, and Murphy. On Sunday, October 2, there will be another walk/run to benefit the Bismarck High Key Club and the Team Myla Paying It Forward Foundation, which was created in her honor. BPS students and staff can write letters to the foundation to request help with cancer treatments. Kristine was a recipient of Team Myla funds and is grateful to Robin Nein, BHS students and staff, and the Paying It Forward Foundation.
She is also grateful to her team of female professionals at Mayo Clinic, and she is excited that they have sent off parts of her giant tumor to various research facilities for testing.
“It makes me feel good to know that it’s being used for something positive, like research, after all of this.”
To see more photos of Kristine teaching, click here for a gallery by Photos by Jacy.
Renae Hoffmann Walker
Renae Hoffmann Walker is a Bismarck native and has enjoyed many years as Community Relations Director at Bismarck Public Schools. She and her husband Dwayne are river rats, empty nesters, and seasoned travelers.