StoryCorps at SHC: Arnie Hollander & Katharyn Israel

Arnie Hollander (AH): Before getting cancer, life was pretty standard for me. I grew up in a rural area. I started picking strawberries at eight years of age and went on to deliver newspapers at 11. And once I got a driver's license, did nighttime janitorial. I worked my way through high school and college and illness was never something I ever thought about, nor did I have.

Then 2000 came along and I was sitting in an architect's office actually, I got a call from my doctor that said, "That lab test we did a couple months ago proves that you had lymphoma." My life changed, considerably, when I got the call that said, you have cancer. My mind just got cluttered with a lot of different questions. "What's this cancer and how severe is it, and what will it do to my life? And what doctors do I go to see, and how much time do I have to do all of that?"

So my wife and I set out on the road to try to figure out what this was and what we needed to do about it, and we were very, very fortunate to hear about Stanford's Lymphoma Program and I relied heavily on the doctors at Stanford, particularly Dr. Advani, and just was outstanding. The people that were there, the type of treatment, the accuracy of everything I had.

Nothing significant came up until two and a half years ago when I got rash on my arms and my legs, started slow and started spreading. Went to a dermatologist, he did a couple biopsies and sent those off to a lab. The lab results came back inconclusive, and when you've got a rare disease, there are over a hundred different ones, a lot of people don't know a lot of about them, and a lot of labs are not set up to do proper diagnosis.

So when the results came back, he said, "Well, this might be mycosis fungoides, but I don't know anything about it." So I called Dr. Advani and he said, "Well, you're very, very fortunate because one of the world's best mycosis fungoides doctors is here at Stanford." So when I met Dr. Kim, I had a fair amount of confidence already built up that what she was going to tell me was going to be accurate. But I don't take doctor's words at a hundred percent all the time. I mentally challenge what they're telling me. So I asked a lot of questions and she was able to tell me a great deal about what I was going through, what I was likely to go through, what treatments I might have, and that went forward with a lot of confidence.

Katharyn Israel (KI): At this time in your life, what's most fulfilling to you now and how are you staying positive at this current moment?

AH: Family is probably number one. My wife, who's been my support and foundation through all of this, we've gotten through this together. My kids and my grandkids are just a delight for me. I'm blessed by having an incredibly beautiful piece of property up here in Oregon, lots of green, lush landscaping. For me to walk in our woods and see the trees and see the deer and so forth is really positive.

And I've taken on a hobby finally in my life, learning to do wood turning. Turn bowls and other things like that. As people get into my age, illness starts to become more and more prevalent. So I just try to stay positive and stay in contact with my friends and yeah, I'm just looking forward.

Produced by Stanford Health Care with interviews recorded in collaboration with StoryCorps, a national nonprofit whose mission is to preserve and share humanity's stories in order to build connections between people and create a more just and compassionate world www.storycorps.org

Sound Editor: Emily Hsiao

We use a transcription service, and though we do check for accuracy, there may be errors. Please contact us if you have any questions.