Hello All,
I'm in the UK and at 50 years old have been very recently (Sept 8th, 2020) diagnosed with CML that was detected after going for a routine eye test that picked up one small bleeds on the back of each of my eyes. I was referred back to my GP for blood tests and hey presto here we are!
Prior to diagnosis I had not felt unwell and had been working out very regularly on a spin bike.
Upon diagnosis I was admitted to hospital and had a WBC of 146 and was placed on medication (Hydroxycarbomide) to reduce WBC. At The end of this phase of treatment my WBC had reduced to 91 within 1 week.
I'm now taking 400mg Imatinib for the past week and so far no noticeable side affects but I know that its early days. In the last two weeks my WBC has reduced further to 41 last week and now stand at 20 as of this week and all other bloods levels are good.
Its been a whirlwind past couple of weeks from diagnosis to starting treatment and being back home popping my daily pill.
Although I seem to have had a very smooth path so far, I'm sure that there will be some bumps along the road and I feel as though I'm almost waiting for something to happen which I guess is a pretty normal way to feel right now.
For the past three weeks I have not been working out as in the first instance I was told not too. however I have now been cleared to commence working out again but as its early days on Imatinib I decided to give this a couple of more weeks to see if/or what side affects kicked in.
I know that everyone is different in response to medication, but can anyone advise on the time after starting medication that side affects would become apparent.... or can side affects appear randomly and at anytime?
The only thing that I have noticed is a tingling/numb feeling down the left side of my back/spine that seems to occur when I'm washing my hair, brushing teeth. I felt this initially after coming home from hospital a couple of weeks ago and put it down to spending a few days in hospital and mainly sitting/laying around all day. Has anyone else had this tingling/numb feeling?
I'm currently away from work but doing bits from home, however I'm hoping that if I still feel as well as I do now at the end next week, I can think about returning to work and start work out again (although a slow build up).
Thanks in advance for any information that you may be to offer.