Story

At the end of August 2024, I had my annual doctor appointment with blood labs. One of the labs showed that I had elevated white blood cell count and lymphocyte count so my doctor ordered another round of labs and the counts were the same. So I was referred to my local hematology/oncology center for further blood labs. I met with my oncologist in October - she had a suspicion that she shared, but wanted to do more detailed blood labs. Some were completed locally, and some went off to the Mayo Clinic. When they all returned, they were all pointing to Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia. In November, I had a PET scan to confirm staging and rule out a more aggressive form of CLL.. At that time, the scan did rule out that more aggressive cancer, and my oncologist put me at Stage 1 CLL. I've found HealthTree to be a wonderful and important help in learning about CLL, its progressive symptoms and current treatments. My mission now is to help others that are newly diagnosed with CLL learn about it as I have and to offer them the same comfort that God has given me.