Re: Time Between Diagnosis And Treatment

Hi There, Dorothy P. here. Thanks Joe L. and Patty B. for your feedback. I am a 1000 miles away from my son who will be having surgery to remove the lymphoma on Feb. 12th. He has yet to be told the stage his HD is in. My question now is why surgery, before trying to zap the tumor to allay the growth of cells before surgery. One would think with surgery, any multiplying cells that escaped into the blood stream would set up housekeeping in another part of the body's lymph system. This would increase the stage # and be more difficult to cure. If anyone has knowledge of surgery before treatment for HD I would appreciate a response.
The medical center where he will have surgery is where I went to nursing school, some years ago. I have mixed feelings about the course of care they have chosen for my son. Also, what is the criteria for being seen at the Cancer Treatment Centers of America? Or any cancer facility?
Is it by referral or?

I am just reading this information, but as a patient of Hodgkin's I have experienced many of the things that happen in treatments. I am a little curious as to what your son was diagnosed with exactly and when. It isn't typical to have a lympnoid removed. It can be biopsied, with exception to the spleen, which can be removed. When I had mine done, I had a staging laparotomy at which time the spleen was removed and then the extent of the disease was discovered. I see this was in january, I imagine by now that surgery has happened and you now know what the extent of the disease is. If you feel like talking about it or have other questions. Just ask. I will try to help you with them if I can.

Elizabeth Y. Thank you for responding to my message. My son had surgery in February and was diagnosed with Stage 2a Hodgkin's. After his first round of chemo, x-rays were taken of the thoracic area and two more tumors were discovered. The Drs. are debating whether to do more surgery now or wait until he has a few more chemo treatments. He was really sick after the second treatment and missed 4 days of work.
His co-workers have been very understanding and went about completing his work. My son is in HIGH spirits about the outcome and when I see him in May we will discuss the possibility of introducing Transfer Factor Plus in his treatment regimen. Did you have TF+ with your treatment? If so, did it shorten your treatment span, make you less likely to become ill from the chemo, or visible change in hair loss?
A bone marrow aspiration a few weeks ago was negative. God Bless , Dorothy P.

My son had a lymph node remove on nov. 18th, 2005. On december 6, 05 we were told he has hd. They removed his lymph node because my son was so persistent and insisted he wanted that thing out of him. This was the 2nd time in 3 years a node was removed. They sent both nodes to duke university in nc and the 2nd node tested postive for hd. I'm glad and thankful my son was so persistent but now we are all scared to death. We go to the oncologist on wed. He is 20 years old and has no symptoms of this cancer except for the enlarged node that was removed. Now, i'm concerned he has more that we just don't know about. I just don't know what to expect. I think as a mother i am more concerned about him than he is about himself but of course that is only natural. He said when we told him that he has always been afraid of dying from cancer. That statement just broke my heart.