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Summary


Chronic Myeloid Leukemia (CML) was the diagnosis I received on November 1, 2005. I went into the clinic three months earlier because of a tightness in my chest, left side, resulting even from a short walk out to my car. Then the week before diagnosis I went in because of a strange bulge in the left side of my abdomen, felt when lying in bed on my back. Turned out to be a rather large spleen, later measured at 11cm below the rib cage.

Since then, my family and I have been through some trying times. And as a Naval Officer stationed overseas in the UK and with family and friends living throughout the world, including the United States, United Kingdom, Ireland, Germany, Japan and Australia, I decided early on that it would be easier to update everyone via a blog than by email or phone.

I tried, and resisted, Gleevec. I also tried Sprycel but I proved intolerant to it because my counts dropped as soon as I took more than 50mg daily (standard is 100 to 140 mg daily). So I turned to a bone marrow transplant, which I underwent November 31, 2007 at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, WA. I have since been dealing with chronic graft versus host disease (GVHD) issues with my GI tract (resolved), eyes, mouth, and now my lungs. The lung problem is pretty bad as I hve been diagnosed with bronchial obliterans and now have only 42 percent lung function and am on oxygen a great deal of the time.

But not to fear; I am hanging in there, keeping my spirits up and continuing with my life. Through this blog, people have followed my treatment plans through success and failures, various types of medical appointments and procedures, my fluctuating counts, etc. Besides information detailing my own experiences, I also try to include general aspects of CML, various forms of treatment and the experiences of a stem cell transplant.

Sunday, November 30, 2008

Happy Birthday To Me, Happy Birthday To Me

Hello my loyal followers. Yes, today is really my first birthday of my stem cell transplant and my wife, children and I celebrated with a nice cake. I cannot believe how fast this past year has gone by. Thanks again to all my dear family and friends who have supported my family and I. We really do appreciate it.

I hope you all enjoyed your long Thanksgiving weekend (at least those of you Americans who celebrate the occasion). As always, my wife cooked us a fabulous traditional turkey dinner and I am sure I did put on some much needed pounds. In fact my mother said she hoped I put on a good ten pounds. Sorry to tell you Mom but if I did then those pounds are now gone.

Nothing much has changed since my last blog except that I did go into the Air Force Academy hospital to get another PSA blood test done, which thankfully came back negative for signs of prostate cancer. So I am continuing with my increased dose of the immuno-suppressive medication, tacrolimus, and the meds for my mouth. I am also now taking calcium and vitamin D supplements, hoping for better bone density results in a few months.

Well it has been a long day and I am off to bed. My wife is very good to let me sleep in when I can and because of the 24-hour snow fall we have just experienced, the children have a two-hour delay for school in the morning. Yes! More sleep. Good night all. I still have to get up in the morning to shovel snow.

Posted by David Cox

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1 comments:

Anonymous said...

David,

Happy B-Day to you!!! COngrats on the PSA coming back negative! Whew. What a relief.

Thank you for taking the time to write in my "donor book". I have valued your friendship and advice as a well informed survivor.

Billy and I head up to Seattle this weekend, he is flying in from London. Then we are back next Thursday night. It is an easy, quick and direct flight which is nice.

Enjoy the snow and tell Louise and the boys I say "hi"!
Lea

December 3, 2008 5:46:00 AM PST

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