One Lucky Lady
Living with Ovarian Cancer… and After
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About the Book
Summary of "One Lucky Lady"
"One Lucky Lady: Living with Ovarian Cancer...and After," by June Klein Bienstock, was undertaken as a form of therapy to combat the despair of chemotherapy. Given a blank notebook by a good friend, she began to recount her problems as well as her blessings: knowledgable and caring doctors, loving and supportive children, grandchildren, relatives and friends, and especially faith in God's help. Mrs. Bienstock describes the course of her recovery, enjoying milestones along the way that she never thoght she would live to see: bar and bat mitzvahs of grandchildren,46year old son's marriage, daughter's becoming a PhD after 23 yearsand a trip to Israel with daughter and granddaughters. One lucky lady, indeed!
Afterword
Ovarian cancer made headlines just five months after my book was first published in August, 2005. On January 5, 2006, The New York Times first page story announced, “Gain Reported in Combating Ovary Cancer,” followed by the words, “Abdominal Procedure Found to Extend Life.”
When I read the details of the story describing the therapy announced in a report released by The New England Journal of Medicine where “the technique employs two generic drugs already in wide use for ovarian cancer, paclitaxel and cisplatin, and involves high doses that can have severe side effects,” I recognized the protocol that I was on that rushed me to the hospital, unconscious, where I was put on life supports, eight years ago!
Neverthless, the head of the National Cancer Institute urge all women with ovarian cancer to insist on taking this therapy and if their doctor refuses to go where it is administered, because ovarian cancer is more deadly than breast, colon or prostate cancer and this therapy prolongs life for at least two years more than the standard therapy.
I would like to correct two omissions in my book. The first is in the period after my hospitalization and coma, my doctors agreed to take me off this protocol in favor of the standard therapy at the insistence of the nephrologist who said my kidneys were failing.
Secondly, the Times article indicates that the skill of the surgeon in removing as much of the cancer that has spread to the abdominal cavity as possible is crucial to survival. I now realize how fortunate I was to be in the hands of Dr. Steven Rubin at HUP and want to apologize for the delay in extending my heartfelt thank you for making these last eight happy and productive years possible.
About the Author
Author Biography June Klein Bienstock, a native New Yorkerand product of the New York City public schools, with a BA from Hunter College and an MA from New York University in English literature, was married in 1947 to Herbert Bienstock, Regional Commissioner of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and professor at Queens College until his death in 1994. Mrs. Bienstock taught English in the city's high schools for 28 years and at New York Institute of Technology and Queensborough Community College. The author of many articles, she co-authored, with her daughter Dr. Ruth Bienstock Anolik, professor of English at Villanova University, "Careers in Fact and Fiction," published by the American Library Association. She is also the mother of Joshua Elliott Bienstock, a labor lawyer and professor at Cornell University; the mother in law of Dr. Robert Anolik, a pediatric allergist, and Linda Rosenthal, of The Trust for Public Land; and grandmother of Jonathan, a senior at Binghamton University, Rachel, a junior at Cornell, and Sarah Anolik, a freshman at Barnard College.