Re: Pneumonia - Lynne

[Guest guest]

Dear Lynne,

How long were you off IM, and are you still off it? If so, are you taking

anything else to combat your CML, or planning to do so? If you are off it,

are you checking your CBC regularly, along with any other CML parameters

(FISH, qPCR)? It would seem a good idea to follow these at least. I'd

expect your white count to be up from your pneumonia anyway, but it would be

good to know what baseline you were starting from.

> Date: Thu, 17 Mar 2005 13:22:20 EST

> From: MoonQn1@...

> Subject: Re: Re: New to group- R.

>

> My fears were founded on the fact that someone's son went into the hospital

> with the same symptoms I have, and it was there he was found to be in blast

> phase and died. And then Marque passed away due to pneumonia complications and

> his CML was not stable. I guess my fears are irrational when one would assume

> I am still in chronic phase. I just think that going off of Gleevec for as

> long as I did surely compromised my remission status. But it is all an

> unknown at the moment, for I have had no blood draws since the day I returned

> from BZ, and no FISH nor bone marrow results to view.

When did you get back from Belize? I haven't been reading the lists all

that much, or I'm sure I'd know.

> I was just wondering that if my counts are high, wouldn't it make it harder

> for me to heal from this illness quicker? While getting pneumonia would not

> indicate loss of remission, would loss of remission make the body weaker and

> more prone to infection?

That depends on the extent of your relapse. By the time leukemia has

reinhabited your bone marrow, spleen and especially your lymph nodes, then,

yes, I expect it would interfere with immune function. But at a WBC of,

say, 20-40,000, it shouldn't make much difference.

> Can you tell me what the difference is between " walking pneumonia " and

> pneumonia? I know that there are viral and bacterial forms of both. Perhaps

> that is why antibiotics would not work in the case of a viral infection.

> Rather, the medicine would only " clean up " the by products of the pneumonia,

> and not take care of the raging virus.

Walking pneumonia is so called because you feel well enough to walk around.

You have a fever, but a pretty low grade one, usually without shaking

chills. The cough is usually hacking though over time it becomes productive

of sputum - though not as much as with bacterial pneumonia. Most " walking

pneumonia " is caused by organisms which are neither bacteria nor viruses,

such as chlamydia, Legionella and mycoplasma.

By contrast, bacterial pneumonia makes you much sicker, usually with shaking

chills, high fever, and a cough productive of darkly colored sputum. The

two are also distinguishable by xray.

Get better soon, Lynne.

R

[Guest guest]

In a message dated 3/17/2005 9:03:57 P.M. Eastern Standard Time,

rrockef1@... writes:

How long were you off IM, and are you still off it? If so, are you taking

anything else to combat your CML, or planning to do so? If you are off it,

are you checking your CBC regularly, along with any other CML parameters

(FISH, qPCR)? It would seem a good idea to follow these at least. I'd

, I was off IM for about 3 1/2 weeks. Then in Belize my CBC read

21,500 so I immediately started up on IM. I hit myself pretty hard. The bone

pain

now is awful but I have peace of mind that my counts should be going back

down (last checked 7,400) in spite of being ill. I am going for a FISH and the

bmb next Tues. if I feel up to it. I should be better by then, already I am

trying to venture outside to do an errand on my own, very shaky but managing.

I also am going to Boston the week after next for another consult, so I

should be ok. I know that my current onc. is NOT happy that I am taking Gleevec,

but he offered nothing else either. - Lynne A.