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boosting your immune system after diagnosis and before chemo
Blood Cancers & Disorders | Last Active: 1 day ago | Replies (5)Comment receiving replies
Thanks, I appreciate your candor, glad I could bring a giggle! 🤭
I absolutely agree doing nothing is doing nothing.
I’d love to get this over with so I could get on with my life. I was all set to do that in early January as was suggested by my doctor in December.
He said that it would likely be time to do it then.
But because of the improvement in my platelet count in January over the previous month the doctor decided to wait another three months and recheck my counts again at that time before deciding whether to start chemo or not.
Very frustrating,
that’s what made me wonder if I did nothing would I speed up it’s progression, and was I slowing it down by trying to improve my immune system.
Hence putting therapy off further down the road which is NOT what I want to do.
the only answer I get as to why we are waiting is
“ the cure can be worse than the disease” It seems as if I don’t have a choice as to when I start chemo, it’s all up to him.
Very reassuring 🙄
My insurance lists him as the only doctor in network that specializes in HCL so i’m out of pocket seeking out a second opinion, and because I’ve had to cut back to
part time, the money is just not there now.
So if i’m understanding what your saying,
I’m going to do what ever I can to help bolster my immune system, it seems that will have little effect on the progression of the disease.
it will advance how it will advance, no matter what I do.
So seems to me I’m not going to do anything to slow the progression or speed it up any more than it naturally would, just perhaps the healthier my system is the better I will be able to tolerate chemo.
Thanks again
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There can be a real sense of frustration when it comes to dealing with blood cancers or conditions…for doctors and patients. Some conditions can literally take years to become an issue because they progress so slowly. Some, like AML, can come on like speeding locomotive! But what I’ve learned about mutated cells is that if they’re not taken out by the immune system, then the defective cells continue to divide and replicate…eventually crowding out healthy cells. Food, diet, supplements, again from my understanding, won’t reverse the mutation.
Foods and supplements can certainly have an impact on health and in blood cell formation as you’ve seen with the increase in platelets. There are foods which can increase platelets…you can read about them here: https://www.healthline.com/health/how-to-increase-platelet-count
It’s great what happened with your platelets. However there’s much more to your health issue than the platelet count. The other and perhaps bigger question would be; What is the current morphology of your white and red cells? By waiting, your doctor may be giving you a window to see what happens on that end. Who knows, miracles happen every day. Maybe what you’re doing is delaying the progression…
Whatever is happening, you’re not hurting anything with ramping up your health regime.☺️
Rooting around a little more for information this morning, I came up with this site! The Hairy Cell Leukemia organization. If you haven’t visited yet, it’s worthwhile. Here’s the link:
https://www.hairycellleukemia.org/hairy-cell-leukemia
When to start treatment is ultimately up to you with your doctor’s recommendation.