2006-04-11

11.04.2006

Recount of last night

Arg! Nausea! It hit last night at about 11pm, approximately 4 hours after my second dose of intensive chemotherapy. Right on cue actually. Thankfully no throwing up this time and the drugs make me feel a lot better too. Had a pie yesterday, sasuage roll and fresh dumplings! Heaven! Just as well because chemotherapy made me miss out on dinner.

I think I feel more "human" about 7 days after my intensive chemotherapy sessions hence my increasing appetite. But then the steriods they give me also have the same effect. Either way I get hungry, hehe.

One of the nice nurses, Nurse Mavis(sp?) gave me an apple and kiwi fruit for breakfast which was a welcomed break from biscuits and tuna snacks, as nice as they are. Between dinner at 5pm and breakfast at 7pm there is a total of 14 hours with out food! And I am the kind of person who wakes up at 2am and make myself 2 cheese sandwiches normally!

Thankfully I have parents bring me food and snacks. Some of the elder patient are not so lucky :-( They have no one, and they can't say they are hungry. That must suck big time. Wonder if there is anything I can do for them...

Time 6:47am

Just read a lot more about Gleevec, a new and fangled drug which is set to improve my chances of a cure by a lot because I have the Ph+ mutation. Normally this mutation is a bad thing, that is until Gleevec showed up :D It is a specific drug that targets the mutation and stops the abnormal cells from living. A very encouraging piece of news is that in 2004, 23/24 patients with ALL given Gleevec went into complete remission and have stayed that way for 26 months! This is now almost 1/2 way through 2006 so I expect a lot more experience would have been gained in the matter of treating my condition with this new drug. Even better news is that there is a successor to Gleevec which is effective against 15/16 mutations that makes leukemia immune to Gleevec!

Now don't worry about me thinking this is a cure for leukemia, I know it is not (yet!) but it is a bloody good boost to my chances, especially considering before Gleevec my only realistic chance of a cure was bone marrow transplant or stem cell transplant - and I have no siblings!

Anyways, I think a shower is in order and such. Still waiting for breakfast, hehe :-P Oh and I weight in at 66.7kg or so this morning.

Time 10:35am

Dr Allison and her cohort of doctors and doctors in training came to visit just then. I am told that the Ph+ mutation is one of the causes in my kind of ALL so the drug Gleevec will be effective for me. Further more they are reviewing the studies in using Gleevec with chemotherapy, so they might even start me on it soon, or wait until maintaince/consolidation/post-BMT. The doctors will know best what to do.

My blood stats are not bad today:

• wcc 0.5
• Hb 110
• Plt 72

Notice the increase in Hb and Plt - these are with out infusions. It is a sign somewhat my body is attempting to return to normal, though my wcc count is being surpressed by the chemotherapy. These are all expected signs and numbers are expected to fluctuate every time I get more intensive chemotherapy. Over all I am doing well, and been told I should eat what ever I want, hehe :-D

Dad is bring noodles for lunch, yum yum! Can't wait naturally.