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We are planning a trip to southeastern ID (we loved Pocatello, but it's been 20 years) to drive in from Boise to Pocatello and environs. We live 30 miles north of Los Angeles and we already purchased property in Central CA but the meth problem in that community is out of control. We're in our late 50's, I have metastatic breast cancer that must be managed. Would SLC be the best access to medical care or are there good oncologists in Boise too? What area(s) would your recommend on our trip to check out? Wish list includes not a lot of snow, access to rivers and lakes, Christian community and activities for people our age. Thanks, we are looking forward to the next chapter and a good place that I can enjoy my days until cancer wins the battle (I expect I'll have a good 5-10 yrs as I'm doing quite well despite being stage 4).
Hi, Vera…
I have a family member who has metastasized breast cancer.
I highly recommend you look over the Huntsman Cancer Clinic in Salt Lake City as a first choice in deciding where to move. While Boise does have good oncologists, the Huntsman Clinic is the only full-tilt cancer clinic in this area.
In my family member's case, she has the cancer gene; her mother had breast cancer and her sister has breast cancer. After she learned she had the genetics, she quickly took out a cancer rider on her health insurance and an AFLAC policy to pay for the time off work, just in case.
Only a month later, she discovered a lump. She checked out Boise, then Huntsman, and then settled on the Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale, Arizona, as her final choice. Mayo was the most expensive, but after 7 months of aggressive treatment, she was declared cancer free. Her yearly checkup there, done in October, a year from when the cancer was first discovered, showed she is still cancer free.
One bad and unforeseen element of living in Arizona over the winter was Desert Fever. the Phoenix area's soil is full of a fungus that causes a fungal lung infection. Snowbirds here have come down with it frequently. She caught it midway through her treatment and spent over a week in a conventional hospital fighting it. As she had no resistance due to the chemo, it was very bad.
I've never heard of any Desert Fever in the Salt Lake area. Arizona may have it because the ground never freezes during winters as it does in Utah and Idaho, but I think it is something that needs to be mentioned.
She was extraordinarily lucky to have found the cancer so early and to be so well prepared. While living in the Scottsdale area was affordable (they found a cheap travel trailer rental outside of Scottsdale), staying at one of the nearby hotels for 3 days on a 10-day chemo schedule was not. I was surprised at how high the residential costs were for her and her husband while she underwent treatment.
No one ever seems to think about it, but a patient needs to stay and have somewhere to live close by for months while treatment is ongoing.
Living in the Salt Lake City area may or may not be your best bet. I think it all depends on the level of management you need. If you need aggressive care, Huntsman has it all, but if all you need is maintenance, Boise may be sufficient.
while i really can't say which city would be cheaper to live in, the climate of both is similar. SLC tends to get snow dumps in winter, due to the proximity of the Wasatch range, while Boise usually doesn't get big snow, and SLC is more congested (and the drivers are all crazy people), most everything else is quite similar.
My best wishes to you! I sincerely hope you have a full recovery.
Thank you, you are very kind to offer such detailed information. Currently I am on oral chemo and see my oncologist every 2-3 months. My markers are acting up so we are possibly adding another drug to the mix. For now it's fine for me to live a distance from treatment, but that can and will certainly change. I have a husband who very much wishes it would just be like it is now, forever, but I have to think realistically. I have heard about excellent care in SLC and that's a definite factor. Not sure I'd want to live IN that city but perhaps closeby there are options. Again, thanks so much for the information, it means a great deal to us.
Thank you, you are very kind to offer such detailed information. Currently I am on oral chemo and see my oncologist every 2-3 months. My markers are acting up so we are possibly adding another drug to the mix. For now it's fine for me to live a distance from treatment, but that can and will certainly change. I have a husband who very much wishes it would just be like it is now, forever, but I have to think realistically. I have heard about excellent care in SLC and that's a definite factor. Not sure I'd want to live IN that city but perhaps closeby there are options. Again, thanks so much for the information, it means a great deal to us.
Hello, I have a friend that is battling cervical cancer here in NV. She has talked to people that went to Huntsman in SLC and they had nothing but good to say. One woman had 6 months to live and 7 years later she is still here!
SLC would have greater medical resources than Boise, but Boise does have good hospitals and oncologists as well. In either case you won't have access to the same kind of care you could get someplace like LA, San Francisco or Seattle, though. That's one of the drawbacks of not living in a major city with world class hospital facilities.
Outside of the medical issues, if you're comparing SLC and Boise there have been a lot of threads on the subject you can search through. The biggest differences probably boil down to larger city vs smaller city and the higher prevalence of Mormons in SLC.
Best of luck with the battle you have on your hands.
I don't agree at all with this post. I encourage those who have posted here to look at the break through at the Huntsman Cancer Institute (HCI) in Salt Lake City. Some of the cancers mentioned in this thread have had significant knowledge from the basic science contributions of HCI. HCI is comparable with Hutchinson and UCLA, to the medical professionals. Better than others, given the Hughes Genetics Research, which few universities have. Boise doesn't have a total Internal Medicine Residency yet and no fellowships. It's easy to see the Medical Oncologists completing fellowships at HCI.
Here is a link to the clinical part of HCI and the 100 bed specialty hospital, clinics and more:
Salt Lake County isn't even 50% Mormon and over 1 million people. The metro is closer to 2 million. SLC is significantly larger than Boise with Meridian, Eagle, Nampa and Caldwell.
What I absolutely agree with, is wishing all cancer patients here the very best of care and good luck!
Thank you, you are very kind to offer such detailed information. Currently I am on oral chemo and see my oncologist every 2-3 months. My markers are acting up so we are possibly adding another drug to the mix. For now it's fine for me to live a distance from treatment, but that can and will certainly change. I have a husband who very much wishes it would just be like it is now, forever, but I have to think realistically. I have heard about excellent care in SLC and that's a definite factor. Not sure I'd want to live IN that city but perhaps closeby there are options. Again, thanks so much for the information, it means a great deal to us.
Vera,
Good for you for making changes in your life.
Your present oncologist is the best person to advise you of what type of care you need and how frequently you will need to see your medical oncologist.
I get a little confused reading your posts trying to understand what your number one priority is. It sounds like you want to enjoy life with your doctors close by. I totally agree with BanjoMike that at different times in oncology treatment patients do need to be closer to treatment. Depending on how often you need to see your medical oncologist, there are choices available. It appears that you got inaccurate info about Salt Lake County and the less than 50% LDS population. I posted a link to HCI in my other post.
The things to consider are would you rather have care at Huntsman CI, MISTI, in Boise, or Teton Cancer Institute in Idaho Falls? Before you respond with outdated and tired information, think about how much you want to drive for care (or not), how big of a population you want to live in Boise is smaller than Salt Lake Metro. I know you mentioned Pocatello, but I can't in good conscious recommend Poky currently given some staffing issues. That isn't bashing oncology care in Pocatello, I simply don't know how long you'd have to wait to be seen. If you are looking at Eastern Idaho, look at Idaho Falls, which has double the oncology specialists of Poky. More medical oncologists are coming to Idaho Falls. Additionally a former U. of Utah GYN Surgical Oncologist faculty member, who opened a private practice, does GYN Oncology surgeries in Idaho Falls at EIRMC so patients can recover closer to home. Idaho Falls should be at 60,000 in 2016 with flat growth, but growth is expected. Bonneville County is 108,000 if growth is flat, which won't happen. Idaho Falls is larger than Poky and has a smaller % LDS residents than Pocatello. Thank f5 for finding that info independently. You can read more in the Idaho Falls sub-forum. Boise Metro has enough active LDS residents another temple is being built in Meridian or somewhere west of Boise. I wouldn't pick a city based on a religion. There are active LDS in every city mentioned and plenty of other religions and non believers too in every ID city mentioned.
I'm certain MISTI in Boise is part of the SWOG group clinical trials and others. Teton Cancer Institute (TCI) in Idaho Falls also is a SWOG site but additionally, TCI is almost always a clinical site for Huntsman Clinical Trials. Two of TCI ' S medical Oncologists did their fellowships at HCI.
I'll add there is good cancer care in Couer d' Alene too, the medical director use to be in I.F. , and I know where he trained. But, I am only focusing on the southern part of Idaho as that seemed to be your interest.
My point to you is you have many more choices than you may think. If you want a smaller community, you could live in Brigham City, UT and drive about an hour to HCI. There are many options for you, but if I were you, I'd ask my medical oncologist the anticipated frequency of treatment and follow up visits you'll have in the next 12 months-24 months. Ask your doctor if it's best to be a patient directly with HCI, MISTI or a Huntsman Affiliate, TCI. You may decide you want to live in Boise but get your care at HCI.
If frequent care is needed at HCI and you don't want to drive and deal with 2 million in the SLC metro, patients often stay in camp trailers in a special area at the University of Utah Health Sciences Center. The inpatient facilities are set up for families to cook, wash their clothes and more in the hospital patient suites. HCI was the vision of two time cancer survivor, Jon Huntsman, Sr. It is set up to accommodate patients. If a patient feels hungry at 2:00 a.m. they usually get snacks on the floor at most hospitals. Not HCI. Patients call dietary and tell them what they think they could eat. HCI has the best views. It was built into a mountainside and looking west it is spectacular to see the Salt Lake City Skyline, the International Airport and the Great Salt Lake.
I've lived in Boise, Salt Lake City and Idaho Falls. I think it is important you have the correct facts. Look through the HCI link and see which teams or medical oncologists treat your specific cancer. Contact all the centers I have listed, if you want for more info and then talk to your current medical oncologist.
Good look thinking about the size of the city you want to live in and where you decide to get care. I'll look forward to your posts for many years
Christmas Eve 2014, my primary physician called to inform me that my CT scan showed a very large mass in my abdomen and he had scheduled a biopsy for the day after Christmas. The biopsy was positive for Stage IIIB (very advanced) lymph cancer. I met with the oncologist on 3 January and he was honest and straightforward. While lymph cancer usually has a 5 year survival rate of 85% or so, he said that I probably have a 20% chance due to my age (69), general health (I had 2 heart attacks 10 years ago) and family history (lots of cancer). However, he planned an aggressive chemo treatment plan and we went for it.
At the halfway point three months later, they did a second PET scan to check the progress. To everyone's surprise, the cancer was gone....completely. The oncologist had several discussions with the radiologist who analyzed the scan, and they agreed that it showed me to be 99.9% cancer-free (they never say 100%!!). They did two additional chemo sessions "just in case", so now I am recovering from the side-effects and returning my life to normal.
I feel that I owe my life to MSTI. Everyone there, and I to mean every single person, is so professional, with such a positive attitude and willingness to take the time to help or explain what they're doing, and why. They are such a great bunch of people that I'm almost sorry the treatments are over. Well, okay, not really sorry about the treatments, but will certainly miss those folks. :-)
I used the MSTI facility in Nampa, mainly because they're only 1.5 miles from my home, so driving distance didn't come into it for me. Some of the other patients would come long distances for their treatments.
Hi, Vera…
I have a family member who has metastasized breast cancer.
I highly recommend you look over the Huntsman Cancer Clinic in Salt Lake City as a first choice in deciding where to move. While Boise does have good oncologists, the Huntsman Clinic is the only full-tilt cancer clinic in this area.
In my family member's case, she has the cancer gene; her mother had breast cancer and her sister has breast cancer. After she learned she had the genetics, she quickly took out a cancer rider on her health insurance and an AFLAC policy to pay for the time off work, just in case.
Only a month later, she discovered a lump. She checked out Boise, then Huntsman, and then settled on the Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale, Arizona, as her final choice. Mayo was the most expensive, but after 7 months of aggressive treatment, she was declared cancer free. Her yearly checkup there, done in October, a year from when the cancer was first discovered, showed she is still cancer free.
One bad and unforeseen element of living in Arizona over the winter was Desert Fever. the Phoenix area's soil is full of a fungus that causes a fungal lung infection. Snowbirds here have come down with it frequently. She caught it midway through her treatment and spent over a week in a conventional hospital fighting it. As she had no resistance due to the chemo, it was very bad.
I've never heard of any Desert Fever in the Salt Lake area. Arizona may have it because the ground never freezes during winters as it does in Utah and Idaho, but I think it is something that needs to be mentioned.
She was extraordinarily lucky to have found the cancer so early and to be so well prepared. While living in the Scottsdale area was affordable (they found a cheap travel trailer rental outside of Scottsdale), staying at one of the nearby hotels for 3 days on a 10-day chemo schedule was not. I was surprised at how high the residential costs were for her and her husband while she underwent treatment.
No one ever seems to think about it, but a patient needs to stay and have somewhere to live close by for months while treatment is ongoing.
Living in the Salt Lake City area may or may not be your best bet. I think it all depends on the level of management you need. If you need aggressive care, Huntsman has it all, but if all you need is maintenance, Boise may be sufficient.
while i really can't say which city would be cheaper to live in, the climate of both is similar. SLC tends to get snow dumps in winter, due to the proximity of the Wasatch range, while Boise usually doesn't get big snow, and SLC is more congested (and the drivers are all crazy people), most everything else is quite similar.
My best wishes to you! I sincerely hope you have a full recovery.
It's actually called valley fever. My mom got it many moons ago in Tucson. She was sick for months.
Does that happen in Boise as well? I chain smoked heavily for many, many, many years and even though I quit a few years ago....I still get respiratory issues from it. I'm a smoke-nazi now but that doesn't do any good.
It's actually called valley fever. My mom got it many moons ago in Tucson. She was sick for months.
Yup. I just used the word the other poster used.
My sister-in-law caught in in Arizona a year ago and is still medicating. Like any fungus infection, it can be really hard to kill.
There are several folks in Idaho Falls I know who have caught it over the years from wintering in Arizona, but apparently the fungus exists all over the desert southwest.
Hello I need advice in moving my family to Boise Idaho, we are a Mexican/American family from a northern suburb out in Chicago IL. I have read some of the comments that say Idaho is not much of a melting pot friendly type! My son was offered a job their. Not sure. #help
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