Re: Re: Introduction Margie Nance

[Guest guest]

Thank you for the welcome. I had a typo in my Caringbridge link and corrected it

below.

I was taken off Gleevec (after 5 weeks) when my white went to 1.9, red 9.0 and

platelets 180. Since I had the flu, he wanted the white number to get up higher.

I have been back on Gleevec now for two weeks and my labs from last week were

white 2.5, red 9.8 and platelets 638.

I have blood drawn from the oncology office and within 5 minutes I get the

printed report with the current levels and where that falls in the normal range

numbers. Is that how it's done for most people?

Hopefully this link will work now:

http://www.Caringbridge.org/visit/margienance

margie nance

[Guest guest]

Hi Margie,

It's good to see you checking out the online sites. I just read your

Caringbridge page and saw that you did need to increase your thyroid

meds. I know another woman who had this happen and the increase did

make a big difference for her. I think she saw an increase in hgb

(reds) after her thyroid meds worked again.

I just want to mention that our doctors office uses an older machine

to do our blood tests and it only does what is called a 3 part

differential. A better lab will do a 5 part diff. The problem with

the machine they use is that it does not show basophils or blasts (it

also doesn't show eosinophils). I talked to Dr. Boyd about that years

ago (before I was in remission) and asked if they could send out my

blood for the cbc. He agreed that it would be a good idea to have a 5

part diff for someone with cml and they did send it out for many

years. Just this year I figured I didn't need that anymore as I've

been in remission for so long--so I am using their quick cbc now. The

outside lab they use is actually just 2 doors down from them so it's

not a big deal to send it out. You just have to wait a day to get

results.

The problem with using their machine is that the time to consider

taking a Gleevec break is when the neutrophils go below 1--but you

really can't tell what your neuts are as they have the basophils and

eosinophils all lumped in with the neutrophils. (Sometimes a cml

expert will allow the wbc to go lower than 1 as they want the patient

to get to remission.) Mine went to .6 at one time and I did take a

short (5 day) break that one time. I was seeing a cml expert at MDACC

in Houston at the time and went to my local oncologist for my cbc

tests--but I did not use their machine.

Let me know if you have any questions and I hope your thyroid med

increase kicks in soon!

Best wishes,

Dorothy Emery

On Nov 21, 2009, at 8:02 PM, Margie Nance wrote:

> Thank you for the welcome. I had a typo in my Caringbridge link and

> corrected it below.

>

> I was taken off Gleevec (after 5 weeks) when my white went to 1.9,

> red 9.0 and platelets 180. Since I had the flu, he wanted the white

> number to get up higher. I have been back on Gleevec now for two

> weeks and my labs from last week were white 2.5, red 9.8 and

> platelets 638.

>

> I have blood drawn from the oncology office and within 5 minutes I

> get the printed report with the current levels and where that falls

> in the normal range numbers. Is that how it's done for most people?

>

> Hopefully this link will work now:

>

> http://www.Caringbridge.org/visit/margienance

>

> margie nance

>

>