Undetectable Again!

I have not posted for some, essentially waiting for test results. As you may recall, my numbers had unfortunately gone in the wrong direction last spring. Soon thereafter, I started on a higher dose of Gleevec and also went back on simvastatin. Over the summer, I had another PCR test revealing scores of about the same from what I had in the spring. The only good news was that the numbers were not going up, but rather staying the same.

Just a couple of weeks ago, I went for another follow up visit in Boston and to have another PCR done. This was now about 6 months after starting the increased dose and simvastatin. I talked with Dr. Stone about the plans depending on how the results turned out. He felt that if I was no longer responding to Gleevec, my PCR numbers would have gone up, not stayed the same. He also felt that the simvastatin was likely increasing the effectiveness of the Gleevec and coming off may have been the culprit.

Yesterday, I received my results. As you can tell from the title of this post, I was back in the undetectable range. Needless to say, this was a huge relief. The plan is to continue what I am doing with the dosages and have another test in a few months.

I am hopeful that CML will return to the back burner of my mind again.