FURTHER ALONG THE BENCH

So with my CLL I am moving 'further along the bench'.

After my splenectomy in July it was felt by the doctors that I was recovering well. Haemolysing had stopped and steriods were slowly tailed off. During this 'recovery time' I was still feeling unwell with pain in the splenecomy site and the worry this was causing me. Next I vomited badly followed a couple of days later with the winter flu injection. This led to a urine infection and a trip to the hospital, followed by a chest infection. Two weeks of oral antibiotics at home and I was still spiking fevers and coughing badly. My breathing was so bad it was frightening. I visited the hospital again and asked that I be admitted with iv antibiotics and as soon as my doctor saw how bad my breathing was he had me admitted immediately.

The in-patient stay had a tale or two to tell, but not now. I was coughing a lot, my breathing was very bad and my sats were low. So it was another chest infection and while I was in hospital I was quite anaemic(HGB 69). Three bags of blood, iv antibiotics and 9 days 'inside' I am back home with HBG up to 108. The bad news is that the splenectomy did not last more than a few weeks and I am hemolysing again. I am on a high dose of steroids for now and also taking Azathioprine (an immune system suppressant). It is hoped this will kick in within 6 weeks and I will be able to come off the steroids. My PLTs are now 611!!! This is FAR TOO high and in hospital I was on blood thinners. 611 surely is a stroke risk or worse? It scares me more than a little. The other hard thing is that my WBC has risen to 67.9 so maybe the CLL is back on the march? I have another appointment with my Haematologist tomorrow and will probably find out more then.