Yesterday I had my appointment with my oncologist and lab work.  I had my lab work done 30 minutes before my appointment so my oncologist had my results when she saw me which was nice so she could discuss them with me.  She said that my results all look good and stable.  She also explained some of the tests and the results that I had done since I had seen her last.   One of the tests was done on my chromosomes where they looked at two specific ones to see it there had been any change to them which would cause me to have problems with my immunity to fight off sickness--those came back showing I had no change so have no problem with my immunity ability.  She said that according to my test results inserted into some data system that predicts how the disease progresses, that I have a very slow progressing CLL and that I have probably had it for several years but it just didn’t show up in my lab work.  She also told me that my life expectancy is just like a “normal” person with no CLL which was great news!   This is an answer to prayer as I have been asking God to heal me if it is in his will or if not, to not let my disease progress to the point where I need treatment.  Who knows, maybe later he will heal me--if not, then I am glad that it isn’t progressing.   Since my blood tests showed that my levels are pretty stable, she said I don’t need to come back for 6 months unless I start having some sort of problem.

I asked her about the aspartame issue and she said that there is no proof that it causes CLL and even showed me an article from 2014 that said that it doesn’t. We did talk about chemicals and additives in our food and she mentioned that she doesn’t heat any food in the microwave in plastic because of the chance that some of the chemicals in the plastic could “leech” into the food when heated.  I know that leaving plastic water bottles in the heat had been mentioned in the news before for the same reason.  I guess I will stop heating stuff in the microwave in the plastic container.  I mentioned that tv dinners are in plastic and she said that maybe I should decrease how many of them I eat.  I usually eat tv dinners for lunch and dinner because it is just easier since it is just me eating that meal--the boys are pretty hard to figure out what they want for lunch and in the evening I am here alone with my husband working.  I am thinking about trying to come up with my own “homemade” tv dinners.  She said that is important to eat healthy and stay active--these will help me to feel better and be healthy.  I told her I get plenty of exercise chasing two little 5 year old boys every day!  My daughter told her I also had gotten chickens that I chase too.