03 - The Verdict

So the tests are done, the doctor was nice enough trying to make conversation while he was pounding away on my bone with his hollow needle, I think he bent one or two and the nurse had to go get more from another room. It did concern me a bit that he had no idea where Holland was at: “ah yes, in Copenhagen”, yeah not quite and eeehhhhh Copenhagen is a city. Though Amsterdam seemed to hit a familiar note, must be professionally related I’m sure, you know drugs and such. So I comforted myself with the thought that whatever knowledge he was missing in Geography made room for Hematological issues, so he was forgiven. Did make a mental note though to give him a little Geography lesson at an upcoming meeting, but I digress!

I was put on Hydrea (Hydroxyurea), a drug that should help bring down the white blood cells, until they were sure what type of Leukemia I had. The doctor said he thought I had the “good kind” (which for Larry David fans out there, reminded me of the Good Hodgkin’s/Bad Hodgkin’s "The Weatherman" episode from Curb Your Enthusiasm), and that drugs might be able to bring it into remission. He never mentioned which particular type it was, and at this point I honestly didn’t even know or care there were any different kinds.

We made an appointment for the following Monday when he thought he might have the results from the biopsy back (though his nurse seemed to think this wasn’t possible for a two week period).

The next couple of days we kind of spent in agony and started informing friends and family, who were all extremely supportive, which was definitely greatly appreciated. Jill actually was the one fielding most (read all) phone calls, as she’s the social one anyway and she did a great job. I know all of this wasn’t easy on her either, but she can definitely stand her own. In a weird way having something like this hit, does bring you a little closer to each other, not that I ever felt we were far apart, but still, something like this puts stuff in perspective and brings to the foreground that which is really important, family being number one!

Anyway, I had already taken off a few days from work for aforementioned procedure and I decided to stay home those days and let it all sink in a little and drive myself crazy by researching all forms of Leukemia (and possible misdiagnoses) on the net. The doctor called Tuesday afternoon and told me I needed to start on another drug, Allopurinol to control my Uric Acid Levels, something to do with Gout I believe. Called my boss with the news, who was really supportive, as he always is, and told him I’d be back on Friday. Friday rolled around, was at work and the doctor called, he just got the results and wanted to let me know (which I greatly appreciated).

It was as he had thought, I had CML. I asked if that was the one with the Philadelphia chromosome and he confirmed, I had actually thought I had the CLL. Still not sure if one is “better” than the other, but I guess that doesn’t really matter anyway. He told me about the different kinds of drugs and said there also was a clinical study I might be interested in but we would discuss that further on Monday.

My following weekend was spent on the internet, researching the disease and reading other people’s stories. Pretty amazing we’re able to do that when you think of how things were done a mere 10-15 years ago. I doubt you could have found out much about CML, and definitely you wouldn’t have been able to read people’s Blogs about their experiences with the disease and their hopes, prayers and battles. That in itself, for me anyway, is a big part of the “coming to grip” process.