Treatment Then and Now

I came to be writing this blog after my intial treatments for CLL were finished. I'm now in maintenance mode, so I'm getting Rituxan today while I write this post.

Treatment was a pretty uneventful experience for me. Again, I feel very lucky to have had none of the negative side affects that people sometimes have when getting treatments. Other than the little itching I had during the initial treatment, my body took the Rituxan very well.

I looked at treatment as a step forward on the journey to recovery. I looked for the positive in the experience as much as possible, and by and large it was a good experience. The positive atmosphere of the Midwest Cancer Center has a lot to do with the positive aspect of the treatments. It is a beautiful, spacious, and homey environment for getting drugs pushed through the body.

Of course, I can't really write about Midwest Cancer Center without mentioning the tremendous nursing staff. At the risk of beating this theme to death, I was blessed to be surrounded by such a caring group of people. I know it's their job to give care, but I've been in plenty of situations where the nurses are not as friendly or warm.

Jan, Darci, Ethel, Heather, and Terri made my treatments bearable. It takes a special kind of nurse to care for people who have various forms and stages of cancer/leukemia, and these ladies are absolutely awesome. During my first rounds of treatment, my Fridays with this great group of nurses was a weekly highlight.

The goal for treatment was to try and get my kidney function back to normal. Rituxan and Cytoxan were supposed to help this, along with knocking out the leukemia. My white blood count fell immediately following the first treatment. That was the easy part.

After 10 weeks of Rituxan, my kidney function was not getting any better. The leukemia was in remission, but my kidney function was poor. and getting poorer. More on that in the next post.

Now, I'm in maintenance mode, which means I get a dose of Rituxan every eight weeks. This will continue for two years, after which I can officially call myself cancer free.

This part of my recovery is rock solid and going very well.