What You Don't Know Can Kill You

Since being diagnosed with CML my blood lipids climbed. The reason why? Because I could no longer take any statin medication to keep it healthy.

Statins are contraindicated with Dasatinib (Sprycel) which is the chemo drug I am taking. It is because of the way they are absorbed in the body through the liver. To keep the explanation simple, just imagine a turnstile and two people attempting to go through it at once. Statins are the bully to pushes Dasatinib out of the way to pass through the turnstile. So your body never absorbs the dosage you are supposed to be taking to treat the leukemia.

That becomes a bit of a quandary.

Keeping things in the dark is not healthy!

When I began treatment, all of my standard medications that were also bullys got taken away. Without statins, my lipid counts shot upwards into unsafe levels. Considering that my tummy didn't like the chemo and I immediately lost a lot of weight due to ongoing nausea, one would think my cholesterol would not have climbed. I stuck to a heart healthy diet with lots of fruits and vegetables and no junk food, it didn't help. (I couldn't have eaten junk food even if I wanted to.) Though, admittedly, because of ongoing nausea, some nutrients were not absorbed. Still, I was shocked with what happened to my lipids.

I was very frustrated, unhappy and annoyed. Especially annoyed. With continued high lipids to challenge my heart health, it began to look like I would have more medical problems to deal with! Believe me, I've got enough diagnoses to educate a med school student. Was there nothing more to be done?

I researched information on Dasatinib. I contacted the maker, Bristol-Myers Squibb to see if they could recommend something. No, they said to talk to my doctor. My primary care doctor was adamant that all I could do was to keep to a healthy diet. My oncologist could not give me any suggestions.

Why would a drug manufacturer not have some kind of suggestion? I understand why my primary care doctor could only advocate diet and fiber. Prescribing chemo drugs was not in her realm. And why hadn't my oncologist investigated further to see what else could be done? It all seemed quite irresponsible to me. I wondered how many other patients go through this and feel helpless. How many just go along with the situation and accept things as they are? No, don't tell me. I don't really want to know. I really wish that there could be classes one could take to become a more savvy medical consumer.

I've learned over the decades while dealing with my myriad of medical problems that if I don't keep a watchful eye on things, mistakes can happen. I wanted to solve this dilemma of the lack of a safe drug to take. The more I researched the more I learned. Pravastatin is okay to take for a person who is taking Dasatinib! Pravastatin is NOT A Bully!

I presented my doctors with the evidence and now I have taken Pravastatin for two months. I am so relieved and happy. Look at the results:

Chart

Component	Standard Range	1/16/2012	2/2/2012	7/9/2012	3/1/2013
Total cholesterol		289 H	274 H	249 H	192
Triglyceride		276 H	308 H	221 H	125
HDL cholesterol		47	44	35 L	57
LDL Calculated		187 H	168 H	170 H	110
VLDL (Calculated)	5.0-40.0 mg/dL	55 H	62 H	44 H	25
Cholesterol to HDL Ratio		6.1 H	6.2 H	7.1 H	3.4

A Little Scare

After the bone marrow biopsy the other day, the nurse placed a large and bulky pressure type bandage upon the spot where the doctor had inserted his instruments.(resembling the picture below).


I didn't mind it at first as my behind
was so numb, I didn't even notice it. That night I slept reasonably comfortable as I had taken pain medicine figuring there would be residual pain when the Novocaine wore off.

I kept the bandage on all day yesterday. But today it was getting annoying. I either hadn't paid attention or no one said anything about when to remove it.

Or... wait... perhaps the instructions of when to move it were on that paper I signed without wearing my glasses! Yes, I do believe that's it. What a trusting patient I am... or perhaps clueless?

scattered-brain
Digital Art by Elizabeth Munroz

I scare myself when I think of how irresponsible that was of me!

Needless to say, the bandage was bothering me. It was quite bulky and the tape was pulling and stretching my skin every time I moved. So, I fussed with it and pulled it off.

Continuing to apply pressure I went to the nearest mirror and turned to look at my behind while I lowered the bandage. No sign of blood! Phew!

I kept looking at it for a minute to see if I was mistaken, but there was no sign. I went back to the part of the gauze that had fallen off in order to take another look at the piece that I thought had looked bloody. Yes, it still had a little glob of something on it. I realized it was probably gooey Betadine ointment and not blood at all.

I relaxed and  removed the rest of the bandage and it's been fine since then.

I realize, in retrospect, I need to be more attentive and sensible about these things and ask for help when I need it. I could have asked someone to read the paper to me that I signed without my glasses. Or better yet, I could have made the effort to dig through my purse and find said glasses.

I also realize that because I took an Ativan before the procedure, (just in case this time would not be so easy) that is why I had the careless attitude.

How cavalier I was in signing those papers. What if there was something serious I missed by not reading them? This circumstance was nothing. But it gave me pause to re-prioritize.

Next time I will ask my sweetheart, who went with me to hold my hand, to help me be more vigilant of my carelessness when I'm drugged like that. I seldom take the Ativan. It is prescribed for the few times that I get anxiety attacks. Admittedly I was a bit anxious before the procedure and that was also a reason I took it. 

Live and Learn!