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Anyone know anything about Chronic Myeloid Leukemia? (Original Post) whathehell Sep 2021 OP
My wife was diagnosed with CML in 2015 at 61. DEbluedude Sep 2021 #1
Thanks so much for your input, DEbluedude whathehell Oct 2021 #4
I know my favorite baseball player has it. luvs2sing Sep 2021 #2
Thanks, luvs2sing whathehell Oct 2021 #5
Carlos Carrasco luvs2sing Oct 2021 #10
Enought to know I prefer the cancers I've been treated for the eight or nine years ... marble falls Sep 2021 #3
Thanks for the information.. whathehell Oct 2021 #6
I watched my closest friend Irvin die from it. marble falls Oct 2021 #7
Oh no! whathehell Oct 2021 #8
Quite a while. He had periods of great health and periods of hell ... marble falls Oct 2021 #9

DEbluedude

(812 posts)
1. My wife was diagnosed with CML in 2015 at 61.
Thu Sep 30, 2021, 07:18 PM
Sep 2021

She's been in remission for about 5 years. She takes a chemo pill daily with minimal side effects. The pharmaceutical advances in that area in the last 15 years have given her a chance to live a full, long life. I'm blessed to have great insurance. And her. I'll say a little prayer and hope things work out for your niece.

whathehell

(28,969 posts)
4. Thanks so much for your input, DEbluedude
Fri Oct 1, 2021, 03:47 AM
Oct 2021

and your little prayer. It's good to hear that your wife has been in remission for over five years.

The situation with her is hard, because she's been estranged from much of the family -- her mother, myself sister, most especially -- and I, her only aunt, am caught in the middle. I have read that the prognosis for the disease has
greatly improved over the years, and that about 70 percent of people now have a survival rate of 5 plus years. My niece, however, is VERY panicky,
about it, and keeps berating us about how we "don't care that she's dying". Given that we have no direct access to her doctor, we're not sure what to believe as she is given to exaggeration.

Thanks again for listening.


luvs2sing

(2,220 posts)
2. I know my favorite baseball player has it.
Thu Sep 30, 2021, 07:21 PM
Sep 2021

He takes oral medication for it and is still playing two years later.

whathehell

(28,969 posts)
5. Thanks, luvs2sing
Fri Oct 1, 2021, 04:02 AM
Oct 2021

What is your favorite baseball player's name, btw?

Most of what I'm reading and hearing about this disease is more hopeful than discouraging, but my niece is very frightened.


luvs2sing

(2,220 posts)
10. Carlos Carrasco
Fri Oct 1, 2021, 06:51 AM
Oct 2021

He’s a pitcher for the Mets this year, but played for Cleveland for most of his career. Incredible person with an equally incredible story.

I’ll also add that my husband has a rare form of Non-Hodgkins lymphoma that is very similar to a leukemia. It is very treatable but not yet curable. But almost every week there are new treatments and new research. He has been a healthy man with cancer sixteen years now, and we feel very hopeful. I wish the same hope and health to you and your family.

whathehell

(28,969 posts)
6. Thanks for the information..
Fri Oct 1, 2021, 04:05 AM
Oct 2021

I'm curious, though, what makes you regard it as worse than other cancers?

marble falls

(56,359 posts)
9. Quite a while. He had periods of great health and periods of hell ...
Fri Oct 1, 2021, 06:02 AM
Oct 2021

... He was taking the compound from a western yew - Taxus(?), finally after six or so years he developed a lung fungus and the treatment for one interfered with the treatment for the other. He'd go until one condition got bad enough to treat it. And then the other.

My cancers were more straight forward. The bladder cancer was of a type that radiation or chemo just won't work. I had two courses of BCG, tumors removed 5 or 6 times, and my bladder removed.
I've had about half of my colon removed, and my prostate was taken with the bladder and it was found to be cancerous, too. All in eight years, with the bladder removal in June two years ago.

None of pain and discomfort came from the cancers, but I got more than my fair share from treatment. At least a surgeon could put his scalpel on my cancer.

Irv never had that chance. He had to depend solely on the chemo, he could only hope for a cure, I at least had surgery as a good option.

The way I found out Irvin passed was when I went to his room, his bed was made up. He just "checked out".

The bright point and blessing in that for me and for Irvin, too, I think: Irv didn't know he was dying at the moment. On top of his table over his bed were the last two album covers he putting together for two discs he was recording. He had worked on them till he went to sleep that night and didn't wake up the next morning.




Please remember: All cancers are very personal diseases. What happens to one is not what happens to everyone. I had to debate relating this all to you because, again, all cancers are personal, and I do not want to take any hope of a cure that personal cancers do hold. When I say your mom and you are in my thoughts, it's because you all are. And because I know there is a cure for everyone, knowing when, where and how is a delicate thing and I didn't want to possibly close anyone's mind on that possibility.

Bless you both.

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