PATIENT STORIES
Hear real life stories from CLL patients
I was born in January 1938 and am a retired GP who was eventually diagnosed with CLL nearly 4 years ago after increasing debilitating fatigue initially thought to be a persistent viral infection.
My lymphocyte count progressively increased from 25,000 in April 2019 to peak at 240,000 by October 2020 together with a falling Hb eventually levelling at 80.
I was diagnosed with chronic lymphocytic leukaemia in 2000 just after my 50th birthday. I had several treatments over the next 15 years, but was generally well and active, and continued working as a physician with the Bay of Plenty District Health Board.
I was diagnosed with Chronic Lymphatic Leukaemia in 2006 while I was living in Hawke's Bay. At the time I was a fit and healthy marathon runner with no signs of a health issue. From 2006 until November 2012 it was a case of having quarterly blood tests and a watch and wait brief. I continued to lead a very normal lifestyle, barely noticing my affliction.
When your GP tells you your haematologist’s report “makes for grim reading”, you know you’re in trouble. I had that experience in early 2015 — two years after having been diagnosed with chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL) and shortly after being given the news I also had chromosome 17p deletion, the dreaded genetic marker no CLL patient wants to harbour.
I‘d been getting breathless while exercising and generally feeling off colour. It was just the flu, I thought. I finally went to my GP in March 2012 and he took a blood test. A few hours later I was in Wellington Hospital. My red blood cell (haemoglobin) count was below safe levels and I was very sick.
I had a catering business and was used to working long hours. However, when I began to feel continuously tired, I thought I was getting older!
After two bouts of pneumonia, my doctor sent me to haematology at Palmerston North Hospital and I was diagnosed with CLL in August 2016. It was agreed we would monitor the blood counts as I had a full and busy life... I was selling my business, moving to Hawkes Bay and I had family commitments.