Luiz Health Update

Even though our heads understand that Luiz’s Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia is behaving itself and not getting too excited in his body, trekking over to the National Cancer Institute for his quarterly check-in is always a bummer because somewhere in our guts we can’t extinguish the worry that things might change. Maybe this visit will bring bad news.

Well, not this time. Luiz’s latest blood counts show he continues to be in very good shape. And once again, his platelets count went up. (That’s good.)

For the CLL geeks: Luiz’s Absolute Lymphocyte Count (ALC), while climbing, has been moving at a snail’s pace. One of the guidelines physicians use in monitoring progression of CLL is to look at how fast the lymphocyte counts are increasing. The measure used is the time taken for ALC to double. A doubling time of one year or more is considered a hallmark of a slow, indolent disease. Over the past TWO YEARS since Luiz was diagnosed his ALC has increased by only 46%.

Again, his blood count trends continue to report nothing but good news (within the bad reality of being a CLL patient).

Thanks again for all your concerns and well wishes. Luiz soaks them up like a smiling sponge. Next appointment: January 2010.

It's all good. Luiz -- I gotta feelin'...

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