Lies, dang lies, and scary statistics you wish were lies...

Did you know that one in four people die from cancer?  Seriously, look it up: 

http://www.statistics.gov.uk/cci/nugget.asp?id=915

OK, where was I?  Yes, I got a phone call.  My doctor wanted me to come in to see him, and how soon could I make it in?  Well I was out of state, so it could not be until the next week...  I asked what the problem was and, well, you know it isn't good when the doctor doesn't want to tell you over the phone...

Anyway my doctor finally relented (it probably had something to do with the begging and groveling on my part) and he shared with me that the good news was that my globulin levels which had originally been flagged appeared OK on the new test.  However, it looked like I had leukemia... 

Hmmm. 

What the...?

PANIC!

OK, I really wasn't demonstrably that dramatic.  I once had been quite sick (turned out to be pneumonia).  After work I went to an after-hours clinic and before the doctor saw me the nurse came in to take my vitals...  When the doctor finally did come in, she was obviously shaken by something...  Her first words were something like "I don't care what you came in here for, but your blood pressure is so high you have to go to the emergency room right now and they will put you on an IV with BP medication, or else you will have a stroke."  My exact response was that "I don't do drama.  I am not going to the ER tonight, but before the end of the week I promise to be under the care of a cardiologist."   

But, at least this time, after hearing of possible leukemia, I wasn't very calm and cool - at least on the inside...

Basically the test found that my white blood cell count was high - 21,000.  Not terribly scary high by leukemia standards (where white blood cell counts can be in the hundreds of thousands - or more - with advanced disease), but the count was well enough off the end of the normal scale that the lab's protocol called for a pathologist to take a look under the microscope, and sure enough, they spotted suspected leukemia cells... 

So, fast forward to me returning home a few days early from my trip and seeing first my doctor, then an Oncologist he referred me to.  Nice guy, took a look at my reports and said presumptive diagnosis is Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia, and not to worry, this is something that I will live for a long time, but, there are just a  few more tests to run.  I wait two weeks for these tests to come back, time which I filled with research.  I learned that this is really not one homogeneous disease but a rather maddeningly heterogeneous disease with outcomes that depend on a number of differences at the molecular level...