revenge of Retoximab

I waited all afternoon for the call from my consultant. I dont remember being so nervous for a peice of news since this saga started on 17th Dec. By 6:30 I had assumed the clinic would have finished and that they had not managed to complete my tests in the lab, in the back of my mind hand I was worried they were double checking a bad finding.

At last the mobile rang, it was my doc, and I'll always thank him for this, he started: "Martin, its excelent news!". No leukemic blast cells were seen in the marrow, and there were "text book" signs of retoximab interfering with the blast maturing pathway, which is believed to be the cause of retoximab induced neutropenia. So while I am still neutropenic for now, it is most likely not caused by a relapse.

I am so relieved you would not believe. There is a very high incidence of relapse for Burkits Leukemia and you would expect it expecially within a few months of remission. So the last week has been close to unbearable and I have definitely become closer to my nemesis again. I am now on GCF injections again (prescribed by doc but self administered, I still had some left!). The neutropenia should pass in time so I just need to be careful or I will be back on the ward again with an infection (no take-aways, bah!).

The chances of Retoximab-Neutropenia is about 1 in 30, so combined with having one of the rarest leukemia's (c. 1 in 1,000,000) I am as always proving to be as awkward as ever!