movin' in the right direction

literally posting this after coming back from my appointment this afternoon.  i had blood drawn last week to look at my white blood count and the BCR/ABL count (the bad stuff).  gleevec is working it's magic!!

 

my counts at my last post (11/4):

• white blood count: 41,900
• BCR/ABL: 40%

my counts today (11/21):

• white blood count: 5,000
• BCR/ABL: 19%

i can't believe how quickly my white count has gone back to normal - amazing!  we still need to see that BCR/ABL % get down to 0.01% or less but clearly it's moving in the right direction.  THREE CHEERS for Gleevec, God and Me! HA!

in other news, on the way to my appointment, i was sharing some concerns with Bud about my doctor.  he is fantastically smart and has been working in oncology since 1978, so i have ever confidence in him as far as his knowledge, experience, etc.  my concern was his "bed side manner".  he is VERY nice but can be extremely "flightly", and i felt like sometimes he didn't listen well among some other things. frankly, i was concerned that i would eventually have to fire him, but instead...the man is retiring at the end of december so i will be getting a new doc in the new year! 

as far as side affects go - i'm feeling MUCH better than the first couple of weeks on Gleevec.  the only thing that really bothers me is that i am still experiencing some level of fatigue every day.  i usually "hit a wall" at about 9p and get into bed shortly there after. 

just in time for thanksgiving...

i am extremely thankful for today's results.  for Gleevec.  for my amazing husband. for the freaking amazing gyros and baklava we had for lunch after my appointment.  for the support of family and friends. 

numbers

one thing i forgot to mention in my last post is where my numbers are at to-date.  

at last blood draw (10/17) my white count was at 41,900 (again, normal for healthy females is 6-12K) with 40% of them with the 'bad stuff'* on them.    the 40% is the number that we are most interested in monitoring.  that number needs to decrease to 0.01% or less to reach what is called a "major molecular response/remission".  dr. londer is hopefully that it can be reached in 3-6 months!

A molecular response is the highest level of monitoring available for the CML patient.  Acomplete molecular response indicates the the BCR-ABL gene (the Philadelphia Chromosome) [*bad stuff] is undetectable in 2 consecutive blood samples as tested via Real Time Quantitative and/or nested Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR).  A major molecular response indicates that the ratio of BCR-ABL to ABL (or other housekeeping genes) are less than, or equal to .01 on the International Scale. (http://www.nationalcmlsociety.org/living-cml/monitoring-tests)

i go in again on 11/13 for blood draws and then 11/20 for results.