Tuesday, January 13, 2009

This long winded blog update is being done by Fred. Please excuse the grammar/spelling, etc as I work through my "Chemo Brain" from last week's treatment.

I want to thank all of you for your thoughts, prayers, cards, e-mails, blog postings, phone calls, etc during this challenging period of my life. They are and have been greatly appreciated and have lifted my spirits, especially during those rough days.

To set expectations, while it is anticipated that the Chemo Treatment of Fludurabine, Cytoxan and Rituxan (FCR) will be completed, this is only one step of a long battle. The type of Leukemia ( aggresive B type CLL) I have, will return, it's not a matter of "if", but "when". When it does return, it will be with a vengence and in all probability the FCR Chemo treatment will not be effective in bringing this under control.

On February 5th, I will be having a Bone Marrow Aspiration. It's as bad as it sounds, just think of a cork screw into your hip bone. This test will provide information that will allow Dr. Solberg to make an estimate of how long before the Leukemia returns. As he said to us, hopefully he can say "it's X years and and not X months". We're pretty optimistic based on my previous test results, but will have a better idea on February 6th when we review the Bone Marrow test results with the Medical team.

Keep the prayers coming.

Thanks,
Fred