Hi all.
I am scared my dad is starting chemo in 2 week and I am recovering from a nervous breakdown. I am worried I won't cope seeing my dad go through this.
He was diagnosed 27 years ago and has been well for most. He has been told his spleen is enlarged and will need chemo to reduce the spleen. White cells are 240. He has started having nose bleeds.
I need to be strong for him and the rest of my family but I am frightened. I know he won't want me upset but I feel lost.
Any help would be much appreciated if someone is going through the same thing.
Many thanks
Hi and welcome to this corner of the Community although always sorry to see folks joining us. I am Mike Thehighlander and I help out around our blood cancer groups.
I don’t have CLL but was diagnosed way back in 1999 with a rare incurable but treatable type of skin NHL Stage 4a and although my blood cancer ‘type’ is different I have experienced most types of treatments used but not necessarily the exact same drug mix but understand this journey rather well unfortunately.
During my treatments I had over 800 hrs of chemo and actually did very well through it all and combined with some other treatments put me in remission back in Sep 2016.
A WBC count of 2.4 is on the low side (normal range 4.0 to 11.00) but my counts were much lower and it was still ok. These clinical teams are very experienced at dealing with these challenges and have many tools that can be used.
Do you know the name of the treatment he is having?
Do also check out Lymphoma Action, a small UK Lymphoma Specific Charity who have lots of information, videos and run regular regional online Lymphoma support groups and indeed a great Lymphoma Buddy Service
This is some Lymphoma Action information about CLL
lymphoma-action.org.uk/.../chronic-lymphocytic-leukaemia-cll-and-small-lymphocytic-lymphoma-sll
