Newbie

[Guest guest]

Hello everyone.

My name is and I am a newly diagnosed CML patient. I was

diagnosed on December 13 2006, and after confirmation that I indeed

had the bcr/abl chromosone I started gleevec on December 21 2006.

I am a breast cancer survivor, (diagnosed March 2004, 2

lumpectomies, chemo, and radiation all completed by January 2005),

so I am no stranger to the world of oncology and all the stresses

that go with it. This time however, I have been feeling

more " alone " as I have been unable to find a support group in my

area. I was quite pleased to have stumbled on this group, and

although the circumstances really suck for all of us, I am glad to

have the opportunity to meet you all. I have read many of the

postings and am thankful that they are there for me.

A question I have for everyone right away is " how awful did you feel

at the beginning of all this? " . Everything I have read leads me to

believe I should feel a lot better than I do. I don't know my

numbers yet...so I can't tell you what they are, but I was diagnosed

in the chronic phase. I feel really crappy all around though.

Severe fatigue, pain under my left ribs (that seems to be abating

though), dizziness, just plain old wonky. Those are the symptoms I

had before diagnosis and still have....of course since gleevec I

have added some side-effects to go along with the symptoms. I am

having difficulty discerning which is which though. How long does

it take for the symptoms of the disease to abate?

Thanks a lot