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LIFE AFTER BMT: Transplant Survivor Makes
Surprise Comeback As A Mystery Writer
After years of chemotherapy, bone marrow transplantation, and the
accompanying fatigue and side effects, Sarajane Avidon is living proof that one
can not only survive bone marrow transplantation, but thrive afterwards.
Five years after being diagnosed with lymphoma, Avidon is touring
the country doing book signings for her first novel. A mystery set in the
theater, the work is called Audition for Murder, and is a collaboration between
Avidon, a Chicago actress, and author Susan Sussman. Published in 1999 by St.
Martin’s Press of New York, it is in its second printing, and has an
audience in England, Australia, and New Zealand, in addition to the United
States. Critics have called Audition for Murder savvy, witty and
backstabbing.
Sarajane Avidon |
Avidon’s Journey with Cancer
But 58-year-old Avidon could not have dreamed of her current
success during her struggles with recurring cancer.
After her 1993 diagnosis of lymphoma, and the removal of a tumor
and a third of her stomach, she and her doctor hoped that her struggle would be
behind her. But nine months later, there were more tumors, chemotherapy and
radiation. She lost her hair, but says the worst side effect was fatigue.
“I was better on the couch, just watching the leaves come out
that spring,” she says in good humor.
Nine more months—more tumors. Doctors found that her cancer
was changing to a more aggressive form. After two unsuccessful rounds of
Rituxin, she reluctantly agreed to an autologous stem cell transplant.
“The chemotherapy they gave me before the transplant
was very, very rough,” she recalls. “I was in the emergency room a
couple of times with high fevers and low white counts due to some kind of
infection.”
BMT Patient-to-Survivor Link and the Transplant
Experience
After her experience with chemotherapy, Avidon was terrified about
proceeding with the transplant. “I was sick from being terrified, but
here’s where I have to give the Blood & Marrow Transplant Information
Network a real boost,” she says excitedly. “They made a link for
me.”
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We have an excess of our book Mira’s Month—a 38
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hospitalized for cancer treatment. The book addresses the fears and sadness
children experience when a parent is hospitalized with a serious illness.
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distribution to patients who will be hospitalized for a transplant or other
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location. |
Avidon is referring to the Network’s Patient-to-Survivor Link
program, which matches persons about to undergo a transplant with those who
have been through one. Network staff strive to match patients and survivors who
are close in age and diagnosis.
Avidon was linked with Carla Teter of Aurora, Illinois. And though
she had Carla’s name and address taped to her desk for quite a while, she
had to work up her courage to make the call. “But when I did, she told me
the chemotherapy I had just been given was the roughest part. The worst was
over. She gave me the courage to go through with the transplant.”
Of the transplant itself, she now says, “It’s rough.
It’s arduous—not exactly a breeze. But I slept through a lot of
it.”
The day of the transplant was anti-climactic, she recalls. “I
sat there eating potato chips while being infused.”
For a few days following, she had terrible diarrhea, but says of
the long-term effects of the transplant, “It’s miraculous.” She
credits her survivor link for giving her confidence to get through the
procedure.
“Carla Teter told me I could do it. This changed my
whole attitude toward the treatment. You can’t give that back. What am I
going to do, volunteer to babysit for her grandchildren for the next 12 years?
I can’t repay what she has done.”
That Change Brought Career Change
Avidon has known her book collaborator, Susan Sussman (The Dieter
and Time Off From Good Behavior) since they met during a summer program at
Northwestern University during high school. They have stayed in touch off and
on over the years.
It was on one of those days when Avidon was just sitting at home
on the couch, watching the leaves come out on the trees, that thirty-plus years
of acting were parlayed into the seeds of a new career in a single moment.
Sussman was visiting and said to her, “You’re just
hanging around thinking, and that’s what writers do. So, let’smake a
theater mystery.”
Audition for Murder features Morgan Taylor, a talented actress who
yearns for a juicy role in a prestigious revival on the Chicago stage. She
shows up on time for the audition, but her assigned audition partner is a
no-show, and is soon found dead on the floor of the theater bathroom. The
mystery ensues.
The team worked on the book for about a year, Avidon says. Sussman
did much of the writing, while Avidon consulted on the theatrical details, such
as what an audition is like, how actors think, and other matters related to
theatrical life and productions. Because actors typically supplement their
incomes with jobs doing voice-overs, commercials, television and film, Avidon,
who has done a little of all of these, was able to supply details related to
these kinds of activities for the book as well.
“I wasn’t pushing myself. I was going at my own pace.
But I was finally able to concentrate on other things,” she remarks.
Their agent helped them secure at least half a dozen signings in
the Miami area this past March, and several in the Chicago area. They also have
done signings at Barnes and Noble and the Savvy Traveler.
“There is usually dinner after the signings, and we’ve
just had a fun time with these,” she says.
The book is probably the beginning of a series, Avidon notes.
Their second book, Cruising for Murder, a mystery set on a cruise ship, should
hit book stands in the summer of 2000.
Recovery and Life After BMT
Avidon says she sometimes is in awe of all the energy she exerted
playing the part of the mischievous Maria in “Twelfth Night” a few
years back. “There were 14 entrances and exits. I was up and down
stairways and running. I don’t even know who that person was
now.”
Lately, she has traveled, including some long weekends, for the
book. “My stamina is now half of what it was. But then, I am six years
older now. It’s hard to tell which is which—which energy loss is from
the treatments and which is from being older,” she remarks.
Avidon says she has some heart and lung damage from all the years
of chemotherapy and radiation, but it is being managed very well by medication.
She frequently experiences shortness of breath.
She says she has been an actress “forever,” since the
early 60s, when she moved to Chicago from Parkersburg, West Virginia.
“People often ask me, ‘Aren’t you going to do theater
anymore?’ I tell them, ‘Honey, I can’t even do a flight of
steps.’”
A mother of two grown children and the wife of long-time Chicago
political activist Dick Simpson, the artist and Jeff award-winning Chicago
actress has been acclaimed for her performances in Chicago Shakespeare’s
production of “Twelfth Night” and Wisdom Bridge Theater’s
production of the Pulitzer-prize winning, “ ’night, Mother.”
“I feel pretty good now,” she says.
Words of Advice
“Take it easy, take it easy, take it easy,” is what
Avidon advises people with transplant experiences similar to hers. Music and
pictures of loved ones help at the hospital, she adds.
Following transplant recovery, Avidon’s life seems to say
that the show can go on. “Even with low energy, you can still do things
that you love.”
Her Audition for Murder is compelling evidence of that. |
