Happy New Year to all my friends on this site.
My purpose of this post isn't to ask a question; instead, I wanted to share information with our group. I started on Brukinsa (Zanubrutinib) on January 1, so yesterday was eight days of full dose. My dose is two 80 mg pills twice a day.
So far no side effects that I'm aware of. I haven't had any of the typical side effects yet, nor any serious ones either. The last two nights were interesting in that my horrible drenching night sweats, which I've had for at least a year now, stopped. Maybe they'll just start again tonight, who knows, but for now two nights in a row with none.
This Morning I had my one week blood work and exam, at my local Cancer Center in Boca Raton FL. I'm ecstatic with the initial results. My WBC went from 137,400 on December 13th, to 76,800 today. My Hemoglobin went from 11.6 on December 23 to 12.5 today. My local Oncologist did say that I shouldn't be shocked or sad if my next blood draw shows a spike in the WBC, because it is typical as a first response to Zanubrutinib to have a spurt upward in the White Count.
My wife and I leave on Sunday by air for Boston, where on Tuesday I'll have another blood work and exam with my lead Oncologist at Dana Farber. I'm hoping that the WBC has stayed down instead of the possible spurt upward, and it would be really nice if it has dropped again. We'll see. I also mid last year had an MRI that showed by Spleen to be 20.5 cm. In September in Boston she also did CT scans of Chest, Abdomen, and Pelvis, and they showed huge proliferation of lymph nodes in both numbers and size from prior scans. I don't know if it is too early for her to order new CT Scans next Tuesday, but I'd love to know if the Spleen is going down in size yet and the lymph nodes are also decreasing. I'll let you guys know how Boston ends up next week.
Stay healthy, keep improving if you're on treatment already, and live long and prosper.
Carl