some of you many know the reference here, that is rick james. no matter. this gleevec seems to be a potent but more important a whimsical drug. i've been on it for about six weeks and am feeling some of the side effects that you all here are reporting. at first i thought i was lucky in that i had no physical problems. i took it faithfully on an empty stomach with a big glass of water followed but a large meal. no problem. it wasnt long however before i sensed a difference in my mental state. i seemed to be in a fog some of the time, maybe a little dizzy. this feeling became more pronounced over time and i found that i had to take a nap to clear my head. i wasnt tired just kinda bummed out, unmotivated. and getting back to the snide after the nap took forever. i used to figure a half an hour nap would take 15 mins to properly wake up from. with gleevec more like an hour and half. but, still i would feel ok after this adjustment period. lately it seems the fog is thicker than ever. no abatement. i describe it to some friends as feeling like trying to alleviate a medium sized hangover by smoking a little c grade weed and having it very definitely not work out. to others i say its like driving in a car, windows up, with a bit of an exhaust leak. one thing should be noted. sometimes, and i cherish these, it is, as in the marijuana analogy, mildly euphoric. so a little background. i am 62 year old male who just kept feeling more and more logy and weak for about a year until having abandoned the possibility of a testosterone deficiency i finally was able to exhibit a symptom that impressed my doctor ie a spleen the size of a basketball. this lead immediately to a blood test where upon the doctor called me and said you have leukemia. stop it say i. no you for sure do. your white blood count is at 375,000. not being a medical buff this meant little to me but later i found out i may have set the local record on this. chemo followed and now my blood is normal and my body is good to go. that angle/devil gleevec is keeping me alive but messing with my mind. long winded sob, eh? my question to those who have the experience (and i have read deep into the archives and felt the emotion in some of your reports and questions) is this. do any of you know gleevec users who have no side effects? or people in remission from the dark side of gleevec? seems possible to me that the only people who post here are those who do have issues. it could be, my fingers crossed here, that this group represents an lets call it unlucky group, side effected gleevec users. one would like to think that over time one would reach an accommodation with ones necessary drugs. naive i suppose but still as in the name of our group its nice to have hope. so let me hear some positive tales of eventual normalcy if such exist. thank you for listening and perhaps shining a bit of light here. rb
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