Genesis to present

So there I was at the young age of 20 diagnosed with CML. What happened afterwards uptill now, is a long long story, and to finish it would take a long time, so I'll just tell the most necessary and exciting parts and skim over the rest.



After, the Oncologist I (yes there is an Oncologist II.. details to follow) diagnosed me, I was put on a fairly new, breakthrough drug for Chronic Myeloid Leukaemia named Gleevec/Glivec (trade-name for drug Imatinib mesylate). It was manufactured and marketed by Novartis who were represented in SL by Baurs ltd. And I was put on a dose of 400mg/day measuring to four tablets daily. Now comes the funny part. Hold onto this. In the period of my diagnosis, in August, 2004 -

One pack of Gleevec (for one month/120 tabs) cost Rs. 278,534/= , 

meaning that a day's treatment would cost        Rs. 9,200 

and that a single tablet would be more that      Rs. 2,300

Fortunately we had only to buy a months worth of medicine for there was this patient assistance programme named GIPAP(Glivec International Patient Assistance Program) which provided Glivec at no cost to qualified patients.It was a programme under Novartis which was been run for them by 'The Max Foundation'. These are two organisations to which I am eternally grateful for providing the assistance. Until recently there was much hassle in collecting these medicine, as it was almost given on a ration basis by the kind people at Baurs, but that was due to the idiotic government putting exhorbitant taxes on the free meds that we'd be recieveing, taxes the Baurs people had to pay. Now however that red tape block has been lifted after successful lobbying by a fellow CMLese, to whom we all Sri Lankan CMLites are grateful. We are now collecting our three monthly med packs with much happiness.



Until now, continously I have been taking my daily four golden bullets.

And it has been very successful, it has kept my bad Leuk cells at non-existant levels while causing almost next to nothing of discomfort to me. Nowadays Popping the four golden tablets in and drowning them with a glass of water has become an intergretated almost mechanical chore of my morning rituals.



So to confirm that my cells are kept in check I do a monthly full blood count (FBC); and meet my doctor once every three months. I also have to renew my GIPAP approval via my Oncologist at these visits. Also I generally do a Liver profile once a year just to check if the drugs are in any way screwing up my liver.



Well that's it from a disease sense of view. My Oncologist I died in my second year of treament due to medical illness, and I was so sad to lose him. But my current Oncologist whom I was eventually referred to turned out to be a much more friendly, humourous and likable chap, and we get on smartly.



That effectively sums up the tale on how I came to be here, and now I can blog from the present aith an occasional walk down the memory lane.



Last of a series of posts archived "Genesis"

1. Diagnosis


2. Post-diagnosis


3. Deal with it! 


4. Genesis to present