It is funny that you hear what you would like to hear. In my last post I alluded to the fact that I might be done with treatment after this (the 5th) round. Unfortunately, that is not going to be the case. So I am now set for round 6. End of short report.
At my doctor visit in August (right before the 4th round) he said I was going in the right direction. Blood counts looked good. Spleen, liver and lymph nodes non-palpable. He even indicated that I may only need one more round of treatment (the 5th round). But what the good doctor did not have at the time were the results of my CT scan, which was looking for INTERNAL lymph nodes, those that cannot be felt by human hands. Even though the scan showed a decrease in the internal lymph node size from the scan 3 months ago, they were still present. What this means is that we are ALMOST there. At my doctor visit this Tuesday, everything once again looked great. Blood numbers looked good, and he told me it was my best physical exam to date. So that is a positive note.
Since there is no CT scan scheduled until before the 7th round, I am sure to get 6 rounds, and maybe even 7 or 8 depending on what the scans show. When I asked why the woman ahead of me in the trial got to stop at 5 rounds, they said, "she had no internal nodes". So this leads me to believe that I am just a different case. Dr. Kipps is still VERY positive about my results and told us that as long as I am not having any major side effects, my counts are not bottoming out, and I am still making progress (the shrinking of the internal nodes), that there is no reason to stop the treatment. He doesn't believe in 'over-treating', but he said that if we under-treat, we may be doing this all over again sometime in the near future. He does think that this particular combination treatment is going to show excellent results for both my CLL as well as my AIHA (anemia).
So off we go to La Jolla once again on September 27th for another 3 days of fun and merriment. After this round of treatment I am feeling pretty good. A little tired, but that is usually the case. I am hoping that I will have minimal post treatment side effects like I did last month.
On a family note, our middle son Matt got engaged this month, proposing on vacation in Amsterdam to his long time girlfriend Randi. We are so happy for both of them.
Terry
