Just a few months ago, Joan Iorizzo celebrated eight years of life without cancer.
Joan with Dr. Malamud
Like many dangerous illnesses, Joan’s cancer took her completely by surprise. It began with a bit of dizziness when she went to work. Then her balance failed her, and she found herself walking into walls.
Joan and her husband, Paul, a Marine Vietnam veteran and two-time Purple Heart recipient, made an appointment with a neurologist in her hometown of Hawthorne to see if her problem was serious. The MRI, her doctor explained, showed a lesion near her brain.
Naturally, she turned to a neurologist for treatment but he “didn’t know how to handle my situation,” Joan remembers. After seeking out other opinions, “all the White Plains, New York doctors were telling me to go to New York City.”
The diagnosis was inoperable Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma that had settled into the base of her skull. The cancer was growing fast … as was Joan’s terror. That’s why, when Dr. Stephen Malamud walked into the examining room for Joan’s first appointment, “his smile and bright, happy tie” meant so much. “I knew I was in good hands. His ultimate concern was for our feelings. He listened to everything we said,” Joan remembers.
Dr. Malamud, who was recently named one of Castle Connolly’s Top Doctors New York Metro Area, wanted to get Joan into treatment as quickly as possible. “When can you check into Beth Israel?” he said. Joan remembers turning to her “rock,” Paul, and hearing him say, “Right now!”
In the weeks after the neurologist told her about the lesion, Joan became terribly sick. She remembers little about those first days after being admitted, other than many tests and the kind professionalism of Beth Israel’s staff. “The hospital staff was unbelievable,” Joan recalls, “always attending to my every need. My praise goes out to Dr. Kenneth Hu, my radiation oncologist, who took very good care of me. And the staff in Dr. Malamud’s office and the nurses in the chemo suite and radiation room. I wouldn’t be here today if it weren’t for them … especially Dr. Malamud.”
Joan’s husband and their two daughters, Renee and Randi, stood by Joan as she endured 18 weeks of chemo and radiation treatment every morning. “I was so sick,” Joan says, “And Dr. Malamud was always there for me.” Now, as she thinks back on the disbelief, the confusion and the fear of being told she had inoperable Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, she says happily, “I’m glad to be alive!” Every day is precious to Joan – she knows that nothing can be taken for granted.
If you or someone you love ever receives a diagnosis like Joan’s, we want to be standing by with all our resources at the ready. Please make your gift to Beth Israel today.