Myeloproliferative Neoplasms

Diagnosis

On the 20th February 2018, I was diagnosed at my local hospital with a condition previously unknown to me. With reassuring smiles, the consultant revealed the results of various tests I had undergone over a number of weeks. The tension mounted as the knotty little drama moved towards its dénouement.

Finally, gulp, the moment of critical articulation arrived:


' ... myeloproliferative neoplasm....polycythaemia vera...'  

This was just as impressively imponderable and impenetrable as if Asclepius himself had appeared in person, Deus ex machina, and had intoned the terrible utterance in the Hittite tongue, before giving me cuneiform tablets.

Having heard the evidence and listened to the verdict, I now awaited the sentence.   

Dum spiro, spero, but....  

I (probably) have polycythaemia vera and it is (apparently) incurable. I took little consolation from learning that it is very rare: two in 100,000 (whatever that means).

It was a life sentence, but a life that would never be quite the same again. However, with suitable medication and a modified life-style, the life in question can continue, more or less, in the general direction of a normal term. 

«Ç'est la vie» (I suppose).

MPNs and PV

You should now be able to work out what 'MPN' and 'PV' stand for. MPNs are rare blood disorders related to leukaemia and are accordingly blood-related cancers. PV is an MPN characterised by overproduction in the bone marrow of red blood cells and blood platelets. The main risk of PV, if untreated, is thrombosis with minor inconveniences such as strokes, heart attacks and pulmonary embolisms.

Treatment

What I now take

Low dose aspirin and 500 mg of chemotherapy (taken orally) once a day.

What I now give

Blood. I have had two venesections to date. You probably thought that blood-letting was an ancient and barbaric practice, commemorated quaintly nowadays by the (surgeon) barber's stripy pole. Or it's Dracula and vampires. No - phlebotomy's got to be standard medical practice in the 21st century. Look it up.

Energy. Spruce, spritely and sprinterly is sometimes overtaken by slow, slothful and sluggish.

 

To be continued (Deo volente)