Hi @hababeck. Mayo has a world renowned reputation for taking on some of medicines most challenging cases with world class physicians. But that shouldn’t have you feeling any second doubts towards your great oncologist and your local hospital!
Yes, I was fortunate enough to have my bone marrow transplant at Mayo-Rochester. But my treatments for an aggressive form of AML was administered solely by my amazing hematology-oncology team in my home town at our hospital. It was so reassuring to hear from my transplant doctor that the treatment plan my local doctors had me on was exactly what he would have suggested…he wouldn’t have changed a thing.

So basically, in my case, had I been referred to Mayo with AML, I likely would have been denied because I was receiving appropriate care on a local level. Not everyone needs to be seen at a Mayo Clinic, or MD Anderson, or Cleveland Clinic, etc.. The transplant was another story. That is a procedure that would be better done at a larger institution with deep bench of specialists. However, my local Hematologist oncologist is still the doctor who runs followup blood work for my transplant team between trips to Mayo. It’s a win/win to have my home team!

CLL is often very slow to develop and patients can go for years without any treatments. When and if it becomes time to initiate medical intervention there are options for treatments to slow the progression. CLL remains one of the more treatable forms of leukemia.

So I’d encourage you to just keep on living your life and take this one day at a time. It sounds as though you have a really wonderful team in place and they’re monitoring you. Don’t let these conversations plant any seeds of doubt. ☺️

How was your diagnosis discovered back in 2017. Was this just from routine blood work or were you having any symptoms?