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Old Thu Jul 6, 2017, 05:31 PM
bobspez bobspez is offline
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Join Date: Jul 2017
Location: Southern New Jersey, USA
Posts: 13
Another cmml patient

I just joined the forum today and while looking at older posts I noticed there were a few cmml patients here. I was diagnosed with cmml-1 last September (2016) and have been on watch and wait.
Previously, in April 2016 I was hospitalized with afib for 23 days. (I noticed one of the other cmml posters also was hospitalized for afib when he got his diagnosis.) While hospitalized I was diagnosed with smzl (splenic marginal zone b-cell lymphoma). I got 8 weekly infusions of Rituxan and a pet scan showed the lymphoma was gone. However, I had above normal monocytes since 2013 (above 1.0 since 2014) and the next bone marrow biopsy showed cmml-1. My oncologist sent my slides out for a second opinion and I got additional testing at Rutgers Cancer Institute of NJ, and the diagnosis came back the same.
Presently I am on watch and wait with quarterly blood tests, my most recent a few weeks ago. My WBC is high at 16, my monocytes high at 4.8, and my platelets high at 529, my neutrophils a bit high at 9.2 and my lymphocytes a bit low at 1.2. My bone marrow biopsies in April and Sept 2016 failed to get enough marrow material to evaluate but the peripheral blood had 2% blasts in September. All my other blood test results are somewhere in the normal ranges.
I'm 70 and with the afib am not a likely candidate for a transplant. My quality of life is diminished but basically OK. My strength and stamina are about 1/3 of what they were in 2015 (when I was in very good health), but I sleep well, take a nap every day, eat what I want to keep up my weight. My oncologist said if my WBC get up in the 20's he may advise treatment. If that happens I guess I would prefer Hydrea because it's a pill. I presently take 5 pills a day for the afib, 2 for gout, and one to shrink my prostate. I guess one more wouldn't hurt. One day at a time.
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