Hello @beewoman70 and welcome to Mayo Connect. Your @name is intriguing…are you a beekeeper by any chance? 🐝

CMML or Chronic myelomonocytic leukemia can be a slowly developing blood condition. Which is why you’re in what’s called a ‘watch and wait’ pattern. But a kinder term is active surveillance. With monthly bloodwork your doctor will look for trends and will monitor any changes in your blood numbers. Treatment wouldn’t be necessary until your numbers suggest it’s time. You were recently tested and found to have some acquired mutated genes which contribute to the cause. There’s nothing you’ve done to cause this to happen…life tosses us a curveball sometimes.

I’m posting an informational article below from Healthline which gives a good overall explanation for how CMML develops and possible treatments. I know this sounds frightening but knowledge is power. And from experince, having that knowledge about a disease can help our minds process what’s going on and then deal with it head on.
https://www.healthline.com/health/leukemia/chronic-myelomonocytic-leukemia
There are a few members in our forum who also have CMML and several conversations over different areas. So instead of posting all the discussions I think it would be helpful to bring @encb27 (whose mom has CMML and undergone treatments with Vidaza recently), @tbone45 who has had CMML for several years and may be able to share their experience, @take2deepbreaths whose husband was diagnsosed 2 years ago, and @cblowers1 who is in treatment for CMML, into the conversation.

Here is one discussion in the forum (link below). You can find others by typing in CMML in the top search bar.

~Looking for recommendations of doctors with expertise in CMML
https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/cmml-2nd-opinion-docs/
myelomonocytic-leukaemia-cmml (with @joesim @cblowers1

When do you have your next set of blood numbers run?