Busy Weekend & Return to Swedish for Chemo #4

Anno had a busy weekend:

• Friday dinner out with Jeff and family
• Saturday 8am - 5pm Lymphoma Workshop with Jan
• Saturday dinner out with John
• Sunday Mother's Day brunch at Katie's with the Kirkpatricks
• Sunday afternoon at Kirkpatricks watching golf
• Sunday Mother's Day dinner out with Boyds

This morning to her oncologist's office for a blood draw and to activate her port in hopes of starting the chemo earlier at the hospital. Checked into the hospital by 10:30. Chemo started at 2:00. She is feeling great and is all set up with laptop, cell phone and reading material.

More on the workshop Mom and I attended Saturday:

The Seattle Chapter of the Lymphoma Research Foundation put it on at the Sheraton Hotel just a few blocks from Mom's. It was called:

Lymphoma Workshop:Understanding Lymphoma Basics and Current Treatment Options For Lymphoma Patients, Survivors and Loved Ones

We got a lot of background information on lymphoma from expert physician-researchers from Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. We realized just how rare Mom's lymphoma is. The final break-out session of the day included a presentation on T-Cell Lymphomas. While there were probably 200 or more patients at this conference, when we got to the room where the T-Cell Lymphoma information session was to be held, there was no one but the speaker there! Only one other patient with a T-Cell Lymphoma came in so it was basically a private tutorial!

The session was presented by the physician that Mom has consulted with at Seattle Cancer Care Alliance. He is extremely knowledgeable and a good presenter; it was good to get a refresher and additional background from him.

We learned that of all cancers, lymphoma is a small number and of all lymphomas, T-Cell lymphomas are a small number. There are about 12 variations of T-Cell lymphoma so each of those is quite rare. Even this expert drawing patients from a wide region said he would see maybe 15-18 T-Cell lymphoma patients in a year. A regular urban oncologist might see one every two years.

Mom lasted through the entire 9 hours of conference! I glanced at her from time to time to see if she might nod off but she never did. We had a very interesting time at the conference.

Jan