Hello everyone! I just wanted to introduce myself as a new member of the forum. My name is Michael, and I am a 36 year old CML patient, diagnosed in the summer of 2010. Currently on imatinib, 400mg with no noticeable side effects. My hematology appointments last about 3 minutes each every six months. I'm taking that as a good sign.
Looking forward to joining the conversations!
Hello mate,
welcome to an exclusive club. You and I are the same age and were diagnosed in the same year. Great to hear you're doing well on imatinib, i'm on nilotinib and doing ok. I do find the journey to the hospital, waiting, blood draw always results in somewhat of an anti-climax when the appointment is no more than 3 mins. I'd be quite happy just getting bloods done, pick up some more meds and receiving the results by email, only meeting the consultant by exception if something looked out of the ordinary. I suppose that's quite a nice position to be in really.
Chris
Hi and welcome to this forum, I do hope you will find the discussions useful and supportive.
Obviously you are doing well on imatinib as you do not suffer unduly from side effects, which is a bonus. Your 3 minute clinic appt. every 6 months may well indicate that you are responding well to imatinib- but personally I prefer to know, in some detail, about my PCR results.
Currently I see my doctor every 4 months, and my appointment generally lasts around 10 minutes. We discuss my peripheral blood count and then my PCR results (which are like yours 6 monthly)and I can see are stable at 0.001% (MR5).
Does your doctor discuss your PCR results during the 3 minutes?
Following your results can become a bit of a hobby and you might prefer not to know to much detail- but for me it is good to understand my results in terms of the current guidelines and recommendations of both the European Leukaemia Net and/or the NCCN for best possible response to therapy.
If you have any questions please do not hesitate to ask.
Welcome once again and best wishes,
Sandy
