Stupid questions

[Guest guest]

Dear (the newcomer),

Please don't feel like you are asking stupid questions. There are only stupid

answers like: " Why do you want to know? " A good doctor should be willing to

answer all of your questions. If he feels it is unimportant, his answer should

be that you needn't worry about it at this time. I look at my CBC results and

look at the white blood count, the red blood count, hemoglobin, hemocratit and

platelets. The white count till tell me if I am neutropenic, the hemoglobin and

hemocratit tell me if need a blood transfusion, or if you are lucky enough to

qualify for Procrit injections. The platelets are what keeps us from bleeding

too much as our blood is thinner. When mine go below 50,000, then they usually

withhold my treatment until it recovers. I was scheduled for total knee

replacement a few weeks ago and did not not have it because the oncologist who

is not really my oncologist found my platelets in the 40's to be too low.

So those are the things I look for to see if I am on target, well not exactly

because my counts are always suppressed. My wbc is pretty stationary at 2.4.

It has been as low as l.0 when I was on Inteferon, one of the older treatments

for CML. It's up to us to question the doctor when we are puzzled at anything

we see that doesn't seem normal. In time, you will learn the acrynoms used in

connection with CML. Since were once newbies ourselves, we stood in your shoes,

so ask all the questions that come to mind and we won't think you are stupid; if

we did, we would be casting stones at ourselves. Hopefully soon, you will be at

ease and the butterflies in your stomach will be gone.

Blessings,

Lottie