Gleevec’s out

Good news!

I got the first half of my test results back this Tuesday (the bone marrow test), and they show I have no blast cells in my marrow, which means I am still in chronic phase, and not accelerated or blast phase.

This diagnosis has many advantages, chief among them being not having to rush to get a bone marrow transplant, probably from my sister, which is an operation we can both live without. What the test showed was that the Gleevec had worked in that it put the leukemia into remission, but it also did a number on my bone marrow, frying it to the point where it’s not making any platelets or neutrophils.

Basically, the drug whacked out my immune system and made it a lot easier for me to bleed, and keep bleeding. Hence, I am have been taken off Gleevec, and am currently waiting on the second half of the test results (the bone chip biopsy) to determine which new drug I will be put on. These results should be in by tomorrow, at which point I will also be going in for a blood test to check my platelet levels, and I suppose if need be, pump me with more.

So until that time, I am not on any medication, which for those wondering, will not cause the cancer to leap back with a vengeance; chronic phase is called that because it is very slow moving, and a few days off the drug won’t really do much. And that’s the word for now.

Eat good and sleep well!