Mark Alan Cornell Music Enterprises

Information may not be reliable

This is another tough one to write. I've obviously been a little worked up regarding this last appointment. I did forget to mention the therapy that I use most often. Work Therapy. When I have a project or purpose to fulfill, I am quite happy. So I'd been working hard to accomplish some goals before this appointment. And it mostly kept me sane.

I was also informed by several people in person (Larry and Randy) and several comments (see comments on my last entry) that they still read this blog, so I stand corrected: 6 people still read my blog.

In the meantime, the correct course of action is all too clear. I just have to time it right. The results of the CT scan showed no progression, so that is good. But I need the nodes to shrink. If they keep growing (even at a slow rate) or stay the same, I am (to use Dr. Shpall's words) "behind the eight ball." Dr. Keating increased my Revlimid dosage back to 10 mg and we'll give it another 3 months. The good news, is that they had a "poster child" patient who had a transplant, relapsed and was then given Revlimid and had a serious tumor lysis reaction. Good News? Sounds terrible. But, they stopped the dosage and the cancer was gone, a miracle of modern medicine.

I tried to get survival statistics sorted out for people with my cancer, my age and general health. The best she could give me was that the survival rate was about 60% in general. But that is for all STCs regardless of cancer type, age and health. So I am still in the dark as to when to have the transplant to insure I have the best possible chance. This is literally a life and death decision. If I do nothing, I will definitely die of cancer eventually. CLL has no known cure from chemo therapy. But of the 60% who survive the transplant, a great percentage are cured. So there is no doubt that the transplant is inevitable for me. Dr. Keating did mention that they are close to a new treatment that destroys the bonds between the CLL cells in the nodes and so gets them out into the blood stream where they are easier to kill. Which, if it arrives in time for me, will be very cool. If it doesn't, then I'll have to try for the best remission I can get and do the transplant like that.

Chaya just wrote a new update regarding allogenic transplants (allogenic means from a donor). It is the kind I'll need to get. When I talk to people, they usually don't realize how many different kinds of transplants there are and how different the statistical outcomes of those are. Check out Chaya's article regarding this here.

Anyway, that's the state of my health at this point. I still feel great. I eat like a horse. You wouldn't know anything was wrong to look at me, except that I'm carrying too much excess weight. I am soon to take Groove Duke on the road. It should be fun.