spring 2013
“Getting estimates from moving companies, packing everything up — it was a stressful time,” he recalls. “We were a bit nervous [about the mole], but it didn’t occupy central space in our thinking. We decided that as soon as I got started at Clark and my health insurance kicked in, I would go to a doctor and get it checked out.” Over the course of the summer, the mole grew and changed shape, then became ulcerated. “If I’d known the characteristics, I would have realized this was a harbinger for bad news,” he says. In early September 2011, a dermatologist excised Apter’s mole and sent it off for a biopsy. On September 9, he was diagnosed with melanoma. Apter describes what some call the “mad rush,” the stretch of time between the initial diagnosis and the start of treatment: “Everything is confusing. You’re getting different reports and dealing with different experts.” He was cautioned not to consult the Internet, where worst-case
31 clark alumni magazine
Norm and wife Eurydice in California (above), and at their wedding banquet in Taiwan.
scenarios often prevail, though he did read some disturbing statistics about survival rates. Early scans revealed the cancer had advanced to Stage 3; it has since progressed to Stage 4. The original tumor appeared modestly sized on the surface yet extended deep into the thigh, like an iceberg, and had spread to the femoral basin of lymph nodes in his leg. He underwent a ninehour surgery at Brigham and Women’s Hospital where two sets of lymph nodes were removed, leaving him with seven-inch scars in his thigh and abdomen. Two drains were installed to release the lymphatic fluid, leaving Apter weakened and walking with crutches. Apter was forced to take two weeks off from teaching, but he had prepared by pre-taping lectures that were shown to his students. When he returned to the classroom, he wore sports pants and loose shirts to cover the drains — “I didn’t want to freak out my students,” he says — and persevered throughout the semester, despite the drains frequently clogging, which caused his leg to swell and left him so exhausted that he was forced to lecture sitting down. In January 2012, Apter began a trial drug called Ipilimumab (he notes that traditional chemotherapy and radiation typically are not effective against melanoma) through the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston. He received two infusions with little trouble, but by mid-February the worst of the side effects laid siege, inflaming his stomach and lower intestine so severely that he had to be removed from the drug and put on a course of steroids to combat the infection. In his darkest moments, Apter had formidable allies at Clark. He credits History Department Chair Amy Richter for compassion and creativity in accommodating the scheduling challenges that his periodic absences created. And then there’s Paul Ropp. Apter came to Clark to replace the retiring Ropp, who had been the face of Asian Studies at the University since 1985. The two have become close, with Paul and his wife Marjorie hosting Norm and Eurydice for dinners, taking them on hikes and tours of local sights, and introducing them to