The common thread? Her deep gratitude for all those she’s come in contact with during her treatment. And so she did. “It’s different from anything else I’ve ever made,” she said of the 50inch round, machine-sewn quilt. In the center are four comforting words – ‘No one fights alone’ – clipped from a t-shirt earlier purchased from the Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute’s gift shop. She crafted the quilt in the rich burgundy hue symbolic of multiple myeloma. She named the quilt Sanguine, which means consisting of or relating to blood. “I looked the word up and found it also means being hopeful in a difficult situation, so it was the perfect name,” she said of the quilt, comprised of 40 different strips of fabric. For Weiss, crafting the quilt was therapeutic. “The quality of care I have received has been at the highest level, both technically and spiritually. It gives me great pleasure to express my gratitude with something besides words. “Visually, it’s a very happy, bright quilt and I hope it makes people who see it feel the same way.” Weiss and her husband, Larry, presented the piece to institute employees in late October. At the time of her diagnosis, she had recently retired as a personal trainer in the Charleston area. Upon relocating to McCormack, S.C., she decided it was time for a long overdue physical. Her lab results showed high protein levels. Additional tests were
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ordered and a bone marrow test revealed smoldering myeloma. A doctor in Augusta referred her to an oncologist there. “He told me within 10 years I’d have full-blown myeloma and there was no cure for it,” Weiss said. She sought advice from her physician friends, one a friend of James Suen, M.D., at UAMS; another an oncologist at Johns Hopkins Medicine. “They said I needed to go to Little Rock,” Weiss said. “Roy Sessions, an oncologist in Charleston, told me if it was his wife, he’d get her to Little Rock.” Today, she still believes she made the best decision. “I’m just so impressed with everyone at the Myeloma Institute,” said Weiss, whose doctor is Frits van Rhee, M.D., Ph.D. “From the moment I made my first phone call to the Myeloma Institute it’s been nothing but a supportive and positive experience. Everybody here has been very caring and professional.” When Weiss meets myeloma patients, she advises them to come to Little Rock. “I was told the institute is the No. 1 myeloma research institute in the nation and they are No. 1 in my opinion as well. The staff at every level and position is always welcoming, comforting and assistive. I never feel like I’m just a number,” Weiss said. “The institute is just filled with genuinely caring people. On a scale of 1 to 10, I’d rank all the people who work there as a 12.”
“I was told the institute is the No. 1 myeloma research institute in the nation and they are No. 1 in my opinion as well. The staff at every level and position is always welcoming, comforting and assistive. I never feel like I'm just a number.”
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