6. Results from my 3rd line of treatments

About a week after getting out of the hospital, I went back for more tests, this included more CT Scans to look inside at the lymph system, and lots of blood work.  Then back to the oncologist for the results.

He sat down with my wife and I and went over where we’ve been, and what we’ve done.   Then got into reading about the scans.

As it turns out I only got a 40% reduction in the cancer after going thru 6 months of this last treatment. 

BOOGERS I THOUGHT TO MYSELF!  WHAT NOW!

The oncologist, said we should take a couple of months off of treatments, and relook at our options then.  Which could be more chemo’s, which he was not too big on because of the potential damage already done to my bone marrow.   So he suggested going on Rituxan alone as a maintenance therapy, as he was now out of “FDA Approved Treatments”.

Now let me back up a little bit here.  Before I started the Treanda/Rituxan I got in contact with a doctor who also has the same disease I do.  He is a general family doctor, who officially couldn’t give me advise, but said it would be in my best interest to see a Leukemia Specialist , and recommended one he knew of at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center in Seattle that he had met at some Leukemia Conferences and spoke highly of this guy.  I did try to contact him for a opinion before starting the Treanda/Rituxan, however he was so booked out at that time I would have had to wait 12 weeks to see him, and the window where I could start the Treanda/Rituxan without undoing all of the maintenance chemo I had done the year before to “prime my body” would end.  So at the time I decided to go with the flow and go with my oncologist recommendations.

So here I am again, back at a crossroads, needing treatment but all of the conventional methods are now out of my reach!  Was I now at the end of my journey, as from what I knew of Stem Cell Transplants I was not going to go down that road, as doing so would mean financial ruin for me and my wife, as I would not be able to work, which means no job.  No job means no income.  No job means no health insurance.  And so on and so on.  So basically I would have to bankrupt to do this, and I was not going to do this to my wife to only get another 18 months or so, (if I survived the procedure that is).  And with a 30% chance of not surviving, and a 60% of not making it a year if I did the transplant, are not good enough odds, where I could keep going just as long with just maintenance.

Then a light bulb went off.  Why not try the specialist my doctor friend told me about?  So I called and now this time I was able to get in within a lot better time frame. 

So we met with my oncologist again, and I told him of my plans.  He was all for this.  He told me that if he could be of any help to let him know, and he then sent all my files to the specialist.

Meanwhile, during the time I was waiting to see the specialist the old familiar feelings of CLL/SLL are coming back.  Fatigue, night sweats, pains in my left side, now compounded with a rash and bone pain!  Oh well, the things we put up with!

Never Ever Give Up!