Making the most of the moment
When George Kozlowski's lymphoma came back last winter, he was terrified. "I'd been treated successfully the previous year, but the remission lasted only a few months," recalls the York Beach, Maine, resident. "My wife also had cancer 15 years earlier, and although she recovered, I knew I wasn't coping well. I was almost positive I was going to die."
George Kozlowski, an advocate of mindfulness meditation, learned the technique with help from DFCI's Amy Sullivan, EdD.
As he prepared for a bone marrow/stem cell transplant at Brigham and Women's Hospital, Kozlowski learned about a Dana-Farber study designed to see whether "mindfulness meditation" could help reduce stress, pain, and other symptoms common among transplant patients.
Led by Susan Bauer-Wu, DNSc, RN, and other members of DFCI's Phyllis F. Cantor Center for Research in Nursing and Patient Care Services, the pilot study was seeking 20 patients going through transplants. At the urging of his wife, this self-described "type A" personality signed up.
As a participant, Kozlowski learned how to practice mindfulness meditation from trained instructor Amy Sullivan, EdD, of Dana-Farber. He would recline in his hospital bed, listen to a CD of soothing sounds, and focus on his breathing, physical sensations, and visual cues while letting go of worries about the past and future.
Sullivan visited him once or twice weekly throughout his long hospitalization, leading him through meditations. She checked his vital signs and gauged his pain and anxiety with brief questionnaires. "I knew the sessions were working," says Kozlowski, "because my pulse and breathing rates had slowed by the time we finished."
Mindfulness meditation, while often effective among patients with chronic illnesses and other medical conditions, has not yet been studied in hospitalized, acutely ill cancer patients, according to Bauer-Wu. This project — one of two Cantor Center studies examining the relaxation technique — is looking at transplant patients because of the multiple challenges they face, including isolation, fear of death, and financial concerns. Funded partly by the Friends of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, the research involves eight DFCI staff members or consultants; among them is survivor Elana Rosenbaum, who developed the CD used in the study.
For the 59-year-old Kozlowski, whose cancer has since returned, learning meditation has "changed the whole quality of my life" and become a daily ritual. "It was one of the most important parts of my recovery," he says. "It lowered my anxiety level and increased my sense of control. The more I meditated, the more calm I became. I continue to listen to the CD; it relaxes and refreshes me.
"Before, I was always someone who fretted about things," he adds. "Now I'm focused on the pleasure of the moment, and the days are not agonizing — even if I'm feeling really ill."
