I'm in Houston!
You are right. The above picture is NOT Houston... Not in the slightest. This picture was taken in Montana a few weeks ago, and it is much prettier than my current Houston landscape - so here ya go!
I had a wonderful summer. I was lucky enough to have a couple of vacations, one of which where I was in the beautiful state of Montana. However, throughout the summer fun I always had this dreaded deadline at the end of the summer: my next appointment at MD Anderson.
It felt like this defining day like "here's the end" or "it all starts to be terrible on this day"... But at my appointment, I finally got to put that dreadful feeling behind me because I got very good news. Great news, actually.
The words REMISSION were used. These are words I never thought I'd hear.
Dr. Burger said my labs look really good... Good enough to call it "remission"!! He said at my last visit in May, it was skewed from the chemo-immunotherapy that I received in April, but this time they all look truly normal. NORMAL - my new favorite word. I used to hate that word, but today... I love it. My platelets are 327, up from 207 - which is really good. When they get to the 100's - that's one of the factors indicating time for treatment. (There are many factors, however.)
My hemoglobin came back up to 12.7 after the chemo, which is when it was 11.8. My WBC (white blood cell count) is 5.0 which is low normal, but still normal.
He said that because my labs show remission (NORMAL! favorite word) that he still can't test the mutational status. Mutational status tells you how aggressive your specific CLL is... So we still don't know that - but remember my ZAP-70 was positive - which is usually associated with a "more aggressive CLL."
He was going to let me go until January before coming back for my next follow up, but then when he learned of all the sinus infections I've had over the last 3 months, he decided that he wants me back in November. After that, if I'm still NORMAL, I may be able to go 6 months before coming back again for a follow up.
He told me overall to listen to my body. He reminded (warned!!) me that I can get sick easier than most, and that having no spleen makes it even worse, as I've known. He told me to rest.
REST.
These are not words I'm used to. He told me to please rest when I need to. He highly recommended to keep life/work/all-the-things at a steady, not stressed out, pace. He said THIS will keep CLL in remission longer.
So life, keep it cool. Alright?!?!
Once again, thank you for loving me and supporting me through this CLL journey.
🍷cheers to normal!🍷
