It looks like I didn't explain my remission status very well. I've had a few questions on it so here's what the makers of Gleevec have to say about it.
To date, Gleevec treatment has led to hematologic remission (control of WBC levels) in almost all patients. In about half of CML patients, Gleevec treatment is also associated with cytogenetic remission, in which the Philadelphia chromosome becomes undetectable. However, molecular remission (elimination of CML cells as determined using a more sensitive molecular method called PCR) occurs in less than 10 percent of people who receive Gleevec. Overall, it is estimated that about 80 percent of people receiving Gleevec still have the Philadelphia chromosome, either because it was never eliminated or the mutation recurred.
So there you go. I never promised anyone that my ramblings would be acurate or factual. Like the great Obi Wan Kenobi once said "What I told you was true, from a certain point of view".
As far as today goes, I woke up with what felt like a sunburn on my face. It turns out that I just had dry skin, combined with a little swelling which made the skin feel tight. I've never had that side effect before, but I've come to expext weird things from my body for a couple of days after a medication change. I'm down to 5mg of Prednesone as of yesterday and with every decrease comes a coresponding decrease in energy levels as well. I also have chosen to remove the anti-acid pill, as well as the "bowel relaxer" from my drug regimen. It seems that the Tom Baker Cancer doctors consider those medications optional right now, and I'm not taking anymore drugs than I need to.
So other than that, I'm tired, sore, and unmotivated. I'm still going to go work out on the eliptical machine tonight. I've made a promise to myself that I will get on the thing 5 times a week. Now that Caity and I live so far away from downtown, I'm going to have to get in shape if I hope to ride my bike to work in the summer. It's about a 20km ride each way, and if I'm not training my body to lift stupid amounts of weight, I might as well train it to ride stupid distances to and from work every day. The easy solution would be to simply take the bus like all the other commuters to cheap to drive, but I would rather roll in glass than get packed in beside smelly overweight businessmen and women for two hours of each work day. I hate public transportation. I fully support it as a means to reduce polution, but I refuse to use it unless I absolutly have to.
Well, the call of the baby beckons me, so I must attend to the problem. Ara has learned that pushing large volumes of air past her vocal cords makes a loud, obnixious noise, and she can hold the same cheese-grating tone for a good ten seconds if she wants to. It usually ends up morphing into a fit of rage, like right now for example. Ok, Ok, I really gotta go. Duty calls.
P.S. Kayla, if you're reading this in the future, don't think that you behaved any better, you just happened to be sleeping when I wrote this.
No comments:
Post a Comment