CLL

Chronic Lymphomatic Leukemia looks like this under a microscope:

The DNA of the lymphocyte is damaged at the end of the cell cycle and the cells don't ever get the message to die, so they build up in the bone marrow, the blood, the lymph system and the spleen.

When Duff's surgeon came out of the operating room to give me the initial diagnosis of Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma I was hoping for a cure, like Reed has experienced with his Hodgkins Lymphoma. It was hard to see Reed struggle with the side effects of chemotherapy, but Reed has been cancer-free for seven years!

Reed wasn't able to play soccer during his treatments but he had me paint this soccer ball on his bald head so he could support his team.

But CLL is incurable. Half of those diagnosed do well, their cancer grows slowly and they never need treatment. The other half don't do so well.

CLL damages the immune system.

There is an increased chance of infections, anemia and of other more aggressive cancers.

Duff has some bad markers on his cancer cells that indicate he is more likely to be in the group that does poorly.

We know we don't have control over which group he is in, but we have hope that he will feel well for a very long time.

And we're doing what we can to improve his odds--

exercising and drinking green smoothies every morning,

reading Anti-Cancer by Dr. David Servan-Schreiber,

learning more every day,

praying,

keeping hopeful,

loving each other and our family,

appreciating each blessing more deeply.