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Coping w/ Lymphoma

NHL: A Survivor's Journey

Summary & Participants

As a behavioral psychologist, Brian Stabler knew a lot about dealing with emotional stress. But nothing prepared him for the challenge of lymphoma. Tune in to hear how he overcame NHL and the important lessons he learned in the process.

Medically Reviewed On: July 21, 2008

Webcast Transcript

BRIAN STABLER, PhD: I'm Brian Stabler and 56 years old, and for the last 11 years, I've had low-grade B-cell non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.

Like a lot of people, I suppose, I had symptoms of one kind or another. I was fatigued. I had night sweats. I was losing some weight. And I felt as if I had flu, sometimes for months on end. And this went on for maybe a year.

The first thing that was suggested to me almost immediately after I had been diagnosed was to watch and wait. By that, it meant, "Do nothing to see how this disease progresses, and if it gets bad, we'll do something."

And I remember thinking then, this is not good. I don't like the idea of having a disease like cancer, being told that you've got this life-threatening, and then essentially in the next breath being told, "Well, maybe we'll just leave it alone for a while." It did not make sense. It did not compute.

My first course of action was, in fact, an injection of alpha interferon. And I was given that at the hospital, and given some Tylenol and some Benadryl. And told, essentially, "Come back tomorrow, and let's see how you did."

Well, I did come back in the morning, but by that time, I'd had such a rough time with interferon -- the morning after, I get an excited telephone call saying, "Stop taking the alpha interferon," which was no problem to me, because I wasn't going to take it anyway, again.

"You've just qualified for a new protocol at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute in Boston where they're using autologous bone-marrow transplant as the first-line therapy for lymphoma. And they expect it to be curative. And you fit the protocol." It was magical. I couldn't believe it. It was a gift from heaven.

Being treated with an autologous bone-marrow transplant is like being beaten up to the point where you almost die. So I was holding on. There I was, in the bed, white, bald, skeleton-like, with these two tubes sticking out of my chest. Standing up in the bed with my head thrown back, trying anything that I could not to vomit. When in walked the senior nurse, and she had a couple of words for me that have stuck with me.

She said, "Dr. Stabler, you must work with the therapy, not again it. You're trying to block it. Let yourself go."

I lay down, turned to one side and went on with the therapy and was severely sick. But that was a necessary thing at that point in time. It was a learning moment. Sometimes you have to let go.

[STABLER GOES TO THE DOCTOR]

LEE BERKOWITZ, MD: How are you?

BRIAN STABLER, PhD: Great.

LEE BERKOWITZ, MD: Nice to see you.

BRIAN STABLER, PhD: Good to see you again.

LEE BERKOWITZ, MD: How have you been doing?

BRIAN STABLER, PhD: Good.

LEE BERKOWITZ, MD: You look terrific.

BRIAN STABLER, PhD: Thanks.

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