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Viewing Life through the Patient’s Eyes Philip A. Rowlings heads the Bone Marrow Transplant Program at Prince of Wales Hospital in Randwick Australia. Since becoming a physician in 1982, Rowlings has specialized in hematology. He’s earned several advanced medical degrees, instructed medical students both in Australia and the US, and has authored numerous publications about blood and marrow transplantation. But in 1999, life dealt Rowlings an educational opportunity that few transplant specialists receive—a chance to experience a bone marrow transplant from the patient’s perspective. 
Rowlings’ wife, Glenda, first noticed a lump in her neck while putting on makeup in 1987. Their oldest daughter, Elouise, was only nine months old. “I knew straight-away that it was way too big,” said Rowlings. An examination by a local specialist confirmed his suspicion: Glenda had Hodgkin disease. After six months of radiation treatments, Glenda’s disease was in remission. Two years later, the couple had their second child, Susannah. In 1992 Rowlings accepted an offer to move to the United States to work with the International Bone Marrow Transplant Registry in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The couple and their two children settled easily into their new community, finding close friends at their church and at work. Six years passed. Life was working out so well in Milwaukee, that the family considered staying indefinitely. Rowlings was invited to join the transplant team at the Medical College of Wisconsin, and the family had become deeply involved with their church. But in January 1998, a job offer came that was perfect for Rowlings—Director of Bone Marrow Transplantation at a center in Australia. “My father had become sick, and after talking it over, Glenda and I decided this was the right move,” said Rowlings. He accepted the job and the family began gearing up for the return to Australia. One month later, Glenda relapsed. It was a difficult time for the family. “We were packing and trying to sell our house while Glenda was on chemotherapy,” said Rowlings. “The day we opened our house for inspection by prospective buyers, our oldest daughter, Elouise, broke her arm.” To make matters worse, the family inadvertently scheduled their Open House on Easter Sunday—not a prime time for real estate sales in Milwaukee, and an important religious holiday for the Rowlings family. “At least the emergency room was quiet,” jokes Rowlings. After completing her chemotherapy in Australia, Glenda developed pain in her left arm. The pain worsened over the following year, and eventually her left hand became paralyzed. By mid-1999, the pain was so intense that not even morphine provided adequate relief. As Glenda became weaker, tests showed that she had once again relapsed. Her stem cells were harvested, and she began preparations for a transplant. “During this time, the often-quoted ‘One Day at a Time’ truly moved from the abstract to the necessary reality for our family,” recalls Rowlings. “If I started to think about all the things that needed to be done to get through one week, it quickly became overwhelming. We survived by just plodding along, with only the next 48 hours in mind.” Glenda’s transplant in November 1999 was fairly routine, says Rowlings. What she remembers of the experience is mainly nausea. Three months after her transplant, she was well enough to drive her daughters to school, do a bit around the house, nap, and pick up her daughter later in the afternoon. “This whole thing has been a massive saga,” says Rowlings, who believes the experience has made him a better transplant physician. “In one way, it has been a story about the beautiful love that Glenda and I share. Plus it’s also been a story about how God’s Holy Spirit can sustain us.” “Now I am able to comfort my patients, as I was comforted,” Rowlings continues. He believes that his strong faith in God has enabled him to cross the line that some physicians draw between themselves and their patients. “I’m not afraid of death. I can get close to patients and be both their expert and their friend,” he said. “I understand the horror they are going through.” This year, Easter was a far happier occasion for the Rowlings family than the Easter of 1998. In a quickly penned letter to family and friends, Rowlings wrote: “We wish you a Blessed Happy Easter. As we celebrate and remember this time of restoration, we can tell you that Glenda is also being remarkably restored. She is now without signs of disease… and the dreadful arm and hand pain is a thing of the past. There is also a ‘miraculous’ return of power to what was once her paralyzed left hand. Glenda is so well that we are off for a week’s family vacation in Western Samoa—one of the last unspoiled areas of Oceana. Giving thanks for all these good things… Love, Phil, Glenda, Elouise and Susannah” |
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