Lee, I am afraid that with the high incidence of all kinds of cancers, there are many such "pairs." First my husband was diagnosed with prostate cancer, a year later I with breast cancer, two years later he with lung cancer. He passed away 11 years ago.
Now I have a boyfriend with CLL. His leukemia has been in
the "watch and wait" stage for about 10 years. I heard about a study at NIH on the natural history of CLL where they were recruiting patients such as he who have had no treatment yet, so we will be going to Bethesda in September. His numbers have been slowly rising, he has lost some weight recently and had night sweats and anemia, so it will be very interesting and, hopefully, useful to see what the specialists at NIH might recommend.
We have received a wealth of information, including local support groups (not his "thing"
) from the local chapter of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and lists of doctors who specialize in CLL locally. Also, as I mentions before, aid with travel funds for treatment...the first visit to NIH is not paid for by them.
Good luck to you on your new role as a care-giver.
Sara Anne
Sara Anne
