01/29/11 - Take a Vacation Kid!

This week I saw Dr. Kipps to figure out what to do with me. My liver enzymes have been climbing steadily since I started taking the trial drug on a daily basis, and they actually told me to stop taking the drug last Friday. So when I went to see the doctor this week it was no real surprise when he told me that he thought I should stop the trial. He told me to ‘take a vacation’ from all of this and let’s let everything settle down and see where I land. End of short report.

The strange thing is that all my other blood numbers are in great shape. My nodes are all normal and my spleen is normal. His comment was that I had an EXCELLENT physical exam. But his concern was that my liver enzymes showed no sign of leveling off or going down. He felt that the risk was not worth the benefit. He did not want me to have permanent liver damage. So what now? For now I will stop all treatments except for my monthly immunoglobulin treatment. It doesn’t seem like the last 9 months of my life (or body) have been dedicated to medical science, but I guess time flies when you are having fun. Since there is no track record for anyone that has followed my treatment regimen, there is no way to know how long this may last. Of course, the hope is that it will last a long time, but you are always looking over your shoulder to see who is creeping up on you. I will go back in a month to have the trial ‘follow-up’ checkup, and then go back in 2 months for a bone marrow biopsy which is the real measure of how deep a remission I am getting. At my appointment we talked about new trials that are coming up and possibly one of those may be in my future. He does think that it may be a while before that happens.

I was a little late in getting this out because we have been getting ready to celebrate my Dad’s wife Lois’ 80th birthday bash, which is happening as we speak at our house. It is going to be a great gathering of all sides of the family. Happy Birthday Lois, and many more.

I continue to feel good other than minor aches and pains that may or may not be related to the CLL and/or the treatment. But, as they say, it is better than the alternative. So I am going to enjoy this break in treatment and try to improve my golf game (which may be impossible), and do a little bit of traveling.

Terry