Bendamustine Cycle 2

It was last Monday at 6:30pm that the (212) area code came through on my phone. New York. Craig and I were cozied on the couch already beginning evening news watching routine. I conceded to the fact that I wouldn’t be getting Bendamustine treatment the next morning at 8am as scheduled. That day my local bloodwork check revealed a platelet count of 65. It had risen only 8 over the last five days. How could they expect it to jump to the required 75 in just a day?

I was wrong. My nurse, Brynn, called and said that the team still wanted me to come to the Sloan clinic the following morning. She said that I would think she was crazy, but that she was passing on the word exactly from Dr. Moskowitz’s mouth.

“We got your bloodwork today and see that it’s still low, but we’re going to try something,” she said. “I’m being for real. Right before you get your finger pricked we want you to jump up and down for 15 seconds.”

I told her that yes, that was random, but that I’d do it for sure; that’d I’d do handstands, cartwheels, jumping jacks, whatever it took to be able to get the treatment that I needed. She explained that some of the oncologists had discovered that getting the heart rate up immediately before the blood is drawn can have an endorphin effect which can spike the platelet results. The act can shake things up and force the cells to multiply – if only temporarily. It had worked for another woman on my study and we were hopeful that it would for me to.

So, we grabbed our now nearly permanently packed bags and were on the 7:57pm train to New York City. We didn’t want to deal with a 4am wakeup the next day and luckily had not yet canceled our Miracle House reservation.

Tuesday morning I pulled on my jumping boots and we made the trek across Manhattan. While waiting for my name to be called, Craig pulled me into a side hallway. Little did I know, he had queued up the Rocky theme and was very serious in his coaching role. “Gonna Fly Now” played through his iPhone and he encouraged me to start bouncing. I did a combination of awkward jumping jacks and aerobic steps all the while knowing patients, doctors, nurses could turn the corner at any moment to find the Richard Simmons worthy scene we were creating. He had me going until I broke a sweat and had to strip down to a t-shirt. I was pumped.

Then we heard my name. I explained to the lab tech that I needed to do a few more jumping jacks while she laid out the needle, gauze and Band-Aid.

“Oh sure; whatever it takes,” she exclaimed excitedly and began to dance and laugh right along with me.

I upped the 15 second recommendation to 1:30 seconds watching the red second hand tick as I flayed about then plopped into the chair for the finger prick. The tech was ready with the needle and vile.

Craig and I waited anxiously under the blinding white lights of the doctor’s exam room.

The door opened slowly and in popped a red faced and beaming Dr. Moskowitz who proclaimed: “Happy Thansgiving! You’re getting treatment!"

We all cheered like goofballs as she read the lab results with the platelet count of 78. Brynn poked in to give a yelp as well. Dr. Moskowitz then revealed to me that had it taken one more day for my platelets to reach 75 I would have had to been pulled off the study. I don’t even want to think about what that would have meant as this is the drug that I need. There are very, very few – if any – other tricks in the bag. I am glad that I didn’t know this tidbit beforehand. That was a very wise omission of info on her part as I had been uneasy enough about being off treatment for seven weeks.

It was so odd to want something so desperately that I knew would leave me hurting so badly. It was a massive relief for all of us. Besides that nagging desire to live, scientifically, the team at Sloan of course wants me on the study so that they can watch me meet success, so that they can prove that this course of treatment works and so that they can help other patients in the future. It’s strange to think of myself in these terms and of course these are not terms ever spoken by my medical team, but I am a rare scientific specimen. I am in a clinical trial for a reason. They need my data. They need to study me. I need to live and I am putting my life in the hands of this medical science. I am more than willing to do whatever it takes and hope that everything that I am going through will make it that much easier for the next person.

The chemo infusion itself went without a hitch. Dr. Moskowitz ordered a slightly reduced dosage, which the study allows for in the second round. The Benadryl they require made me groggy and woozy but the 40 minutes went quickly.

Riding the usual steroid induced high, Craig and I did some exploring in the city’s design district. We spent hours perusing through the visual wonderland that is ABC Carpet and Home taking in floor after floor of creative, artistic interior décor. Every single thing in that place is a conversation piece in and of itself. Then we snacked on rock hard NYC pretzels from a cart and stumbled upon a huge open-air holiday market in Union Square. Under every tent was a different artisan with something mind bending, intriguing and unique to explore.

Suddenly the steroids wore off and the Bendamustine in. My legs started to swell and give out and my head became very heavy. It was time for my prince to escort me “home.” Both chilled and flushed from the long day I burrowed into the bed covers in our Miracle House room to indulge in a much needed before-dinner nap.

We then gathered with a group of nearly 20 other patients and caregivers staying at MH that evening for our biggest group dinner yet. We all ducked out from the cold November air and into the reserved tables at Pom Pom diner. We shared a booth with a fascinating woman from Nebraska who is a calligrapher, an educator and an arts and books lover among many things. We had very much in common, and it was comforting to hear about what she’s learned and experienced through taking care of her ailing father – a retired English professor. There were many others there too. Some knew already that they would remain in the city through the holiday. Others were packing up to make the trek home to their families with plans to come back for their next treatments, procedures, and adventures.

On top of the post-chemo symptoms, a cold had set in and my nose was continually running just as much as I was sneezing. Sleep was hard to come by and my nose had become raw from the continual tissue rubbing. But it was up and at ‘em early again on Thanksgiving Eve for infusion number two. My ever- patient husband waited away the hours with me as my chemo was mixed until I was finally “served.”

The train ride home was packed wall to wall with people, baby strollers, suitcases, and shopping bags. Every seat was taken and even the vestibules were full all the way along the New Haven line. We were fortunate to have gotten to Grand Central early enough to get a seat of our own. It was a beautiful thing to watch the human dynamics. Despite how cramped it was, I witnessed so many people helping to hoist others’ bags on the racks above their heads, giving up seats for the elderly, helping women with strollers to navigate between the cars. It made me smile between sneezes and chemo flush waves to think about who and where they were traveling to and what it would be like when they got there. Would their Thanksgiving table be a Turdukin or a Tofurkey table? How long had it been since they’d seen their families last? Were they looking forward to or dreading the reunions?

Despite how awful I felt and how desperately I wanted to be curled with Sammy on my couch, my chest was filled with a palpable fullness of contentment and astounding gratefulness to have my husband’s shoulder to sleep on and so many more loved ones to look forward to sharing the holiday with.

Rejected

I should be recovering from Bendamustine cycle 2 right now, but I am not. Apparently, I am still recovering from Bendmustine cycle 1, but did not find this out until Craig and I traveled all the way into New York City expecting me to get treatment.

After an hour drive south, we stayed with Craig's aunt in Trumbull Wednesday night who then graciously escorted us to the Metro North train station to get us into the city the next morning. We took an early 90-minute train in so that we could make it from Grand Central to Miracle House to drop our suitcase and get back across Manhattan to Sloan-Kettering to make a 9:45 a.m. appointment with the oncologist. Needless to say all of the packing, schlepping, car ride, train ride and taxi rides was exhausting.

I had my finger pricked for a CBC (complete blood count) check per usual then was ushered in to meet with Dr. Craig Moskowitz, as opposed to my usual doc, Alison Moskowitz (no relation) who was rounding last week. His fellow came in and checked me over and I recapped the myriad
symptoms I'd experienced over the three-week recovery period. Then the doctor came in and we did the same. He was obviously wicked smart and incredibly breezy about everything. He didn't feed into the need that Craig and I have to try to control everything about my care: Will we
do another round even though I have chest swelling? Will the transplant team be ready as soon as I have a clear scan? What about trying another drug with a shorter recovery period?

I think he got quite a kick out of us, this young question-firing couple. The doctor looked me straight in the eye, took a deep breath, smiled and said: "You know your body best. Don't worry. We know what we're doing and we're not going to let anything happen to you." It was such a simple reminder to just breathe and to realize that I am in one of the best places in the world to be treated at and that I am working with the best of the best medical staff. He, in particular, has a huge reputation in the lymphoma world and authored the study that I am on. I was a bit humbled.

He ordered the chemo and Craig and I headed to the chemo suite waiting room where we settled in for what we knew would be a long wait after our experience the previous month. We had DVDs, games and books at the ready. But before we could even start up the laptop, one of the
session assistants came over to me and whispered that I was wanted back in suite 1, that I wasn't going to be receiving treatment.

My heart sank and I was in complete shock, immediately filing through what possibly could have happened, a slight terror shuttering through me. I honed in on the fact that the little finger prick I had received early in the morning had elicited enough blood to sufficiently soak through the layered gauze and eek through the Band-Aid that was wrapped around it. I came to the hypothesis that my platelets must be very low. Damn it.

We got back to the suite and were immediately grabbed by an unfamiliar nurse who pulled us into a teeny room full of files and computers and told us to wait for the doctor. I heard her say to someone outside the door who was questioning our presence there: "It's just for a minute. It's a very special circumstance." Craig and I looked at each other with the panicked: what the hell is going on? look.

Dr. Moskowitz popped his head in with the update: "Your platelets are too low."

Ah, I was right. Platelets are the blood cells that help blood stick together and clot. If there are not enough of them present in my bloodstream and I were to cut or badly bruise myself, I could bleed to death. He explained that my count registered at 45 K/mcL (reference range 160-400 K/mcL). On the study, it is written not to treat someone under 75 and he explained that even if I wasn't on the study, he would never give a patient another round of Bendamustine with a platelet count under 50. No chemo for me. I wouldn't be able to get a platelet transfusion either. What I needed was time for my numbers to recover naturally.

"We'll try again next week," he said through a smile and told me to get my blood counts checked locally the day before and have them faxed. As instructed, I had been doing this once per week for the three weeks prior, but my counts had held and apparently none of us imagined that I'd suddenly drop so low four weeks after treatment. This was supposed to be treatment week.

This was frustrating, very frustrating. And even though I wouldn't be receiving chemo, there was still lots of waiting to be had. As a post-autologous stem cell transplant patient I still have to receive monthly Pentamidine breathing treatments to prevent me from contracting PCP pneumonia. We waited. And waited. And waited for my name to be called by the respiratory therapist. Soon I began to go batty. We were both exhausted, disappointed and frustrated, so much so that I just kept laughing for no reason and kept pretending my iPhone was a taser and "zapping" Craig with it, which kept me very entertained. Reading, writing, games were all far too much to concentrate on. Hearing Craig say back: "Don't taze me, bro" a few times over was much funnier.

Two-and-a-half hours later I was brought into a little room and zipped up in a plastic tent just wide enough to envelope me and my chair – similar to E.T. when he's being examined by all of those scary scientist men. I sucked the medicated mist from my plastic peace pipe until the 20 minute treatment was over and I could be unzipped and released out into the world.

We crashed hard after a taxi ride back to Miracle House. We stayed the night and made the most of it. Plus, we were in one of the newly renovated apartments at MH – very hip. After a big nap broken only by the incessant honks of the backed up cars in 43rd street rush hour, we watched Toy Story 3 then meeting up with good friends for dinner at Five Napkin Burger - a super trendy joint in Hell's Kitchen. Laughs, shared stories, and mile high burgers helped alleviate the frustration.

Now it's back to the city in T-2 days for a second attempt at this.