Gleevec out, sprycel in...

Hey. So this is from my phone so won't be long, but needed to update now especially cause I'm feeling ok for the time being. This past weekend I had begun to feel bad again. Not horrible, but about a three on the pain scale. Then yesterday (Monday), it started getting really bad again. I called my dr and they said to come in and do bloodwork to see what my counts were. Then I went back this morning to talk to him about the results. My hurting always coincides with my white blood counts being elevated, so I wasn't surprised when it was 33,000. As well as my red blood cells being low and kidney function a bit elevated as well. I told dr I hadn't been feeling good and he said he didn't think the Gleevec was working and he was going to switch me to another similar medicene called Sprycel. We would see if that worked in the next weeks and if not, possibly push the transplant up sooner. I told him I am fine with pushing it up because I just want to start feeling better. Hopefully this new med will work. Anyways, so when I left his office today he told me he wanted me to get about a gallon of fluids before I left to hopefully make me feel better. So two hours later, I was on my way to teach class when all of a sudden my pain jumped to a 9. It was all I could do to drive home, take a hydrocodine and crawl into bed. I canceled the rest of my commitments for today and mom and dad decided they would come stay at least tonight to help out, and I didn't object. They're here now which is a huge blessing. Again, thanks for your prayers and hopefully this new medication will be the one. If not, looks like we might do transplant earlier, but we will see.

My pastors sermon Sunday was on having joy in all circumstances. Whew-God knew I needed to hear that!!

Love and Grace,
Luke