Hi @sveta25 Ok, I misunderstood, I thought it sounded as though it was a year ago that your husband was seen. What did the 2nd opinion doctor feel about the diagnosis and waiting for treatment?

Regarding the supplements of mushrooms…or any supplements right now. It is better not to take anything that your doctor hasn’t approved. Especially with blood cancers, many supplements can impact our blood such as interfering with clotting, interfering with efficacy of medications. Supplements aren’t regulated or tested in compliance with standard testing. There isn’t much of a data base with statistics available for drug interaction. Also, many supplements, no matter how innocuous they seem, can build up toxic levels in the body, harming organs such as liver and kidney. So for now, from my own experience with having an aggressive blood cancer, please avoid supplements until speaking with your husband’s doctor.

I’m not a medical professional but I am a patient of Mayo Clinic, having received a bone marrow transplant for Acute Myeloid Leukemia 6 1/2 years ago. Through that experience I gained a wealth of first hand knowledge from my incredible transplant team at Mayo and my local oncology team; Both are supportive with my mentoring involvement. While members in the forum aren’t able to diagnose or prescribe medications or offer treatments we can use our knowledge to help others by sharing our experiences.

I know you’re getting desperate for answers because you see your husband’s health waning. Even though his doctor has suggested he remain in active surveillance it doesn’t mean things haven’t changed since his last visit. CLL has certain parameters that doctor’s use as guidelines to begin treatment. Your husband may not be fitting into that ‘box’…Blood cancers are tricky and don’t always follow hard and fast rules.
If you’re interested, here is the type of guide physicians can use to help judge when it’s time to treat:

From Lilly Medical: https://medical.lilly.com/us/diseases/assets/vaultpdf/en/ea78f8a2812b01bf55854de071f2ed63b7b6cdbbfacf80c4d2ed637fe33672a6/clinical-decision-making-in-cll-when-to-stop-and-start-treatment

You’re concerned…that alone can warrant a phone call to his doctor! It’s ok to do that! If you feel your husband shouldn’t wait for another month before being seen, call his oncology office! From my personal experience with my transplant team at Mayo and my local, hometown oncology team…when I called with a concern, they squeezed me in!

The test I asked if your husband had, was a CBC with differential. It means that the lab also counts each different type of white blood cell and immature (not-yet-fully-developed) blood cells: neutorphils, leukocytes, monocytes, eosinophils and basophils, immature granulocytes, etc..
He may already receive those as that’s pretty standard for blood cancer patients. But a peripheral blood smear would show if there are blast cells in his blood. Do you remember seeing that?