Episode 11: Bouncing

My mobile rang; the screen showed ‘private caller’. Curious, and with a bit of trepidation, I answered. It was the oncology nurse from the hospital with my latest blood results. It’s never good when the hospital rings to give you your results. Normally I have the blood taken one week and have a second appointment a month or so later when the results are back. I had been in the previous week for my results but they weren’t through yet, not the important ones at least.

The news wasn’t fantastic. My pcr-abl count, the measure of blood mutants, was up. There are a couple of possible reasons for the counts to go up; I’m not taking my drugs (which isn’t the case), a new mutation (the lab tested for this and found none) or … something else.

The first step is another blood test, another trip to hospital, and another month long wait for the results. So within the week I was back having a couple of fresh samples drained from my arm.

This graph should be a straight line – heading down. We want a logarithmic drop in numbers, ten-fold reductions are good and an increase from 0.07 to 0.22 is bad. The ski-jump at the end is what is worrying me at the moment. That is my bounce. It isn’t a huge bounce, but it is a bounce none the less. 

This isn’t the first time my results have bounced. The first led to a change in medication, the second was a ‘suck it and see’ response. This time … well, we have to wait.