Week 1

So I have officially checked into Huntsman Cancer Institute (HCI) for treatment.  Allison came up with me tonight and we arrived a little after 6 pm.  Allison helped to get me situated and got the orientation and then went home to put the kids down for the night.  I am very grateful to be able to receive treatment here in SLC so that Allison can still be with the kids.   

Here in the near future I will be getting an IV for fluids and antibiotics tonight before the treatment starts tomorrow morning.  I will likely spend most of the week here in the hospital for the administration of the treatment of the high dose IL2.  We have been told that I'll likely be discharged Friday or Saturday of this week, depending on how things go.  This then becomes Week 1.

Week 2 will be spent home again recovering and doing whatever I feel well enough to do. 

Week 3 will be another round of high dose IL2 at HCI - checking in again on Sunday night and then hopefully out Friday or Saturday of that week. 

I will then get a couple of weeks off.  The current game plan (although experience tells me it is likely to change multiple times between now and then) is to do new scans at the end of Week 7.  Depending on the results of those scans we will determine what the next step will be.  For now we think it will be another course of two cycles of high dose IL2 starting with Week 8 at HCI, Week 9 at home, and Week 10 at HCI.  Beyond that, what comes next is anybody's guess.

We are excited to be starting treatments after a bit of a roller coaster getting us to this point.  We're grateful to be finally taking steps in the right direction. 

We are extremely grateful to the many that have reached out in kindness to our family.  And thanks to the thoughts and prayers from everybody we will make it through this.