Huntsman Cancer Center

I must start by saying the Huntsman Cancer Center is pretty amazing. I don't know what I expected, but it certainly impressed me. We arrived at 8:00 am yesterday, Eric checked in at the Lymphoma clinic, yes they have an entire clinic devoted to each type of cancer. He first saw the P.A. and she again did a full physical of Eric. She spoke with us for quite a while, answered all of our questions & even gave Eric a hard time for not completing his medical history form (we liked her already!) We then met with the oncologist, she explained how lymphoma occurs (I'll post about that later) We found out they didn't have all of the tests from McKay Dee that they were needing they were missing the PET scan. They had their pathologists look again at the slides from the pathology from the infamous lymph node that started all of this. They agreed it is Hodgkin's mixed cellular Lymphoma. The doctors were concerned with the fact that Eric has some history of asthma problems & last week he had that chest pain (remember the chest x-ray?) So they sent him to U of U for PFT's (this measures your lung function). So as he did those Hailey, Mom & I went in search of that pesky PET scan, we picked it up at IMC in SLC, and met Eric back at Huntsman Cancer Center for part 2 of the day. We again met with doctors they confirmed that it is stage 2A and that if Eric does his treatment there he will be doing 4 months of chemotherapy (a total of 8 treatments), and then radiation treatments every day for 3 weeks (this radiation treatment can be done in Ogden). They gave us a tour of the Hospital, and the Institute, we saw the research labs, the infusion center, and 2 very yummy restaurants. It was definitely a lot to take in, & Eric is weighing his options. Either way he will start treatment next week (Thursday if he goes to Huntsman, Friday if he goes to McKay). We are trying to remain neutral in all of this, we would like Eric to make the decision, he is the one receiving the treatments, he needs to decide what option he is more comfortable with. It was a difficult day yesterday, an emotional one for sure. But I was once again impressed with how well Eric is handling things, it's a lot for one person to think about.
Just to update you-Eric's incision is bothering him (from the port-a-cath) he is going to see the surgeon this afternoon, I'll let you know how that goes.