Personal Good News on the CLL (chronic lymphocytic leukemia) Front at OSU

Selfie with Roy Lichtenstein's wonderful sculpture at the Columbus Ohio Airport 

Perfect weather in Columbus, Ohio and a lovely walk in the woods with OSU friends the day before my OSU clinic morning with Dr. Byrd.

The Columbus airport is in the throes of construction so they have moved the marvelous structure by Ohio State University alumni, Roy Lichtenstein to a more accessible site where I could snuggle up to his flying brush strokes.

At the James Cancer Hospital, my vital signs were all good with my usual healthy low end of normal blood pressure, no fever, slow pulse, and stable weight.

Physical exam revealed no surprises (no enlarged nodes or  organs), and my lab was rock steady. Red blood cells were just the tiniest bit low, platelets were stable in the high 300's, neutrophils were good and my absolute lymphocyte count was 1.2.

My immunoglobulins are still very low except for "my" IGG level. The "my" is in quotations as the source of my normal IGG on the blood test is from many other generous souls whose blood donations were pooled to produce my every seven weeks infusion of IVIG that boost only that one antibody. As of today, there is no known way to raise my poor IGA and IGM levels.

Blood chemistries were all perfect with my happy healthy liver and renal function tests, electrolytes, and blood sugar. Clean living has its rewards. And ibrutinib is less likely to inflame the liver compared to many other cancer therapies.

Everything tested really hasn't changed much in over a year. Rock steady. I like it.

My only complaint is that appointment was at 9 AM and it's 12:30 now and I am still waiting for my magic grey pills (PCI-32765 AKA ibrutinib) to be dispensed so that I can skedaddle. I was hoping to catch a 12:30 flight out, but that is sure not going to happen. There's another flight in a 90 minutes, but it is fully booked. Miss that I will be sitting at the airport for several hours.

Tomorrow, due to a quirk of scheduling, I do it all over again in San Diego at UCSD with Dr. Kipps.

It's all OK, especially when the news is so good.

PS: I  did nab the very last space on an earlier flight (that left late of course) to Chicago from Columbus, then had to race from one side of the airport to the other at O'Hare to snag my standby seat to LAX just as they were announcing the flight was closed, waited forever for the shuttle to my offsite cheaper parking, discovered too late that the 405 freeway home was stopped dead due to a car fire, so I snuck off going around a barrier as I missed the last possible off ramp, and finally made it home  using surface streets for a great vegan dinner and a short refreshing swim. Now time to sleep. Traveling is not for wimps, but life is good.

Blood Chemistries and More

If you are part of the not medical readership, you can skip the details and just be assured my blood tests are all showing very encouraging and reassuring results.

You know that my hematology tests are all pretty stable- slight drop in my Hgb (13.7 which is borderline low) and a very slight drift down in my platelets, but really all good.

Despite all the attacks on my B cells with rituximab, my lymphocyte counts are flat at or just below the bottom of the normal level. And no neutropenia which is always a slight risk with rituximab. I am very happy with this.

Let me talk about my good news with my blood chemistry.

My kidney function tests have stabilized after moving slowly in the wrong direction, a problem that comes hand in hand with the cycloporin. My uric acid is a stable high normal 7.6, also an another gift from cyclosporin. Cyclosporin is notorious for causing horrible cases of gout. That is why I changed my other blood pressure medications months ago to a combo known to lower the risk of gout rather than increase it.

Liver and electrolytes are all boringly within normal limits, as expected. I am such a clean living guy. No alcohol or toxins. Green veggies from the garden help cleanse the liver.

It seems the addition of Procardia XL, just as advertised, is not only lowering my blood pressure, but also is protecting my kidney allowing me to continue my subterfuge temporary bounce up in my dose of cyclosporin to get the maximum kill of my B cell clone in combo with rituximab.

B2M, a tumor marker is a borderline and stable 2.58. Not perfect, but I'll take it. It suggests a low tumor burden, that the cancer is not about to take off.

So far, so good I must say.

And my palpable nodes are continuing their disappearing act. And no side effects with the weekly infusions.

I am pretty pleased.