Dear Jeanie, My husband's doctor never did a flow cytometry test, he was diagnosed in chronic phase and remains in chronic phase. I have a friend whose husband was diagnosed in advanced phase and his doctor has the flow test done periodically to check for blast or immature cells. So you are very correct in your thinking. Since your doctor thought from your high platelet counts that your disease may be progressing, he did the flow cytometry test which checks for immature cells. Thankfully, you have none.
You referred to your report which said 'thrombocytosis and leukocytosis', that means high platelet count and high white blood cell count. So, again, you were referred to the flow test because your platelets went up. Now that you know that you remain in chronic phase and there are no immature cells as well as the platelet counts are coming down on the 600mg Gleevec, discuss with the doctor to do PCR monitoring after 3 months. By 3 months, you will know how the higher Gleevec dose is working for you. I think you said that another PCR is scheduled in 3 months. That is fine. You need some time to see how the higher dose is working. Most doctors would do another PCR in about 3 months. Always do a quantitative PCR test which shows numbers to track your disease. And the PCR giving a number but a low number is fine because very few patients test negative by the sensitive PCR test. But as long as your PCR numbers are low, your risk of relapse is very low. You can compare the PCR number to the ones you had on 400mg Gleevec and see if there is lower disease load on 600mg Gleevec. So, again, you are doing fine, keep a watch on your platelet counts and other blood counts and wait for the next PCR test and result. If the PCR test shows a downward trend to low values, then all is fine. I am very happy for you that your platelet counts are coming down on the higher dose of Gleevec. You rest easy now. Love, Anjana On Feb 6, 12:31 am, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > Hi and thanks, > I just got my CBC report and my platelets are coming down, which is good. > They were 472 and the WBC is 5. > The only thing out of balance other than the platelets was the monocytes > which were low; 130. > This could be due to the high dose of Gleevec I am now taking. > About the PCR test; I ask the Dr for a PCR and he had me take the FLOW one > instead. Go figure. > I think he did it because of the increase of platelets. > All in all, I'm doing good. > Blessings, > Jeanie<3 --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ [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 -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
