Hi Anjana, Thanks for you long post, however, there isn't much you can teach me about CML that I don't already know.
It is all too easy for us to dig up the stories of the people who are having difficult QOL issues after a BMT. I know a few people like that, in fact I lost a very close friend - for reasons I cannot figure, the doctors decided a "perfect 3 in 3 match" was the right thing to do. I am not sure many of us would have agreed. This brings me to my point, no one can say with certainty what will happen with a BMT as there are so many factors. But I can find just as many success stories for all the horror stories you and anyone else cares to dig up. Sometimes we find the right doctor, the right hospital and the right team that allows us to try the road less traveled. Those are the stories I enjoy hearing the most. As for Jeannie, she knows we all admire her. She didn't really have a choice and her case is very special. She certainly has dealt with her situation with a great deal of grace, we should all learn something from her. As for life going back to normal after a cure - well that just isn't going to happen. But it doesn't mean we shouldn't be thinking about a cure anyway. As I mentioned to Gwen, even friends who have been cancer free for over ten years (still go once a year for blood tests) are still looking over their shoulder. In the end, life is a terminal disease. Yes, I would like to prolong it as long as possible, and yup, I want to have the best quality of life possible too! I am sorry that Roy's doctor "gave him 7 years" on IFN". I am curious as to how he could predict what Roy's response would be if Roy never tried IFN. Is there some sort of test he ran? Most people know fairly quickly whether it is going to work or not. You might be interested to know that I have had conversations with some of the top CML experts on this subject and it is quite fascinating. There are a great number of patients, myself included who certainly believe that there is absolutely a potential to totally erradicate and cure this disease. We should all be grateful to, because as long as there are patients who want to believe that a cure is possible, there will continue to be researchers encouraged to keep up their work ;-) It is nice that both Gleevec and Sprycel are available and all the other products that are in trial. As for moving on with our lives - I hiked three miles in under one hour the other day ;-) So, here's to long term drug free living - let's call it that instead of a cure o.k.? Cheers and best wishes, Cheryl-Anne --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ [CMLHope] A support group of http://cmlhope.com ------------------------------------------------- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "CMLHope" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/CMLHope -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
