Told you I wasn't feeling well...

I was listening to the radio the other day and it dawned on me that I haven't really indicated the symptoms that lead to the diagnosis.

Given the amount of exercise I do, I would say that I'm reasonably fit and fundamentally know when something "isn't quite right" - the non-disappearance of what I thought were muscular pains after a strenuous gym session prompted the sessions to the doctor but looking back on this all:

• Deep "muscular" pain (it was actually pain in the bones because of the blast cells)
• Nose bleeds that didn't stop quickly (because platelet count is affected by the blast cells)
• Weight loss that people were commenting on (and I thought it was because of more activity and better diet :-( )
• General tiredness/fatigue (haemoglobin levels dropping meaning less oxygen being carried around)

This came on very quickly, I was told that had I have had a blood test in November 2008, everything would likely have checked out fine.

Bottom line - don't be a hypochondriac but do listen to your body, if multple things start occurring get a proper check out to include a Full Blood Count.

Hello world!!!

First time blogging, so forgive stylistic errors and the such.

Thought a while about this and in the end decided "why not?" - it's clearly a very personal thing but at the same time I figure it will be cathartic for me to capture mad ramblings but also may provide useful information for others as I intend to capture useful links (somehow, probably a "Resources" label) to share and as I intend to get over this, it could be useful/interesting to read back on.

So, my name's Chris - coming up to my 38th birthday and until 3 weeks ago in pretty reasonable physical fitness, non-smoker, very light drinker and eating as healthily as you can as an office worker when all of a sudden an ailment strikes that eventually (but very quickly) gets diagnosed as Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia (ALL - and you can probably tell by now from my spelling that I'm British ;-) )

Starting this blog and looking back on events to date, it's all been a bit of a whirlwind.

What started off with what I thought was muscular pain from over exertion at the gym but when initial pain killers didn't work and the pain was getting worse I had to take myself off to the local A&E one weekend for some help, that was 14th Feb.

The doctor there gave me something else and a diagnostic based on the best of his ability and the equipment to hand but the key thing he said was to follow up with GP on 17th who critically scheduled blood tests for the 24th Feb.

Reflecting at this point, I guess diagnosis had been pretty slow (considering the seriousness of the underlying ailment - but hey, who suspects leukaemia in an otherwise healthy bloke as an initial diagnosis?!) but from that point on I have been stunned and awed by the efficiency of our beloved NHS.

Something must have "red-flagged" me in the system as I heard the next morning that I had to get over to the local major hospital (Wexham Park in Slough) - I am eternally grateful to the unknown skilled analyst behind the scenes who spotted the problem and obviously made the appropriate notifications.

More tests were conducted there in the afternoon, sent over to Oxford (John Radcliffe) and by about 19:00 that same day (25th) my condition was confirmed and presented.

Thursday we started organising ourselves and Friday 27th February I was admitted to John Radcliffe!

I've since been discharged as an in-patient and am on sick-leave at home but treatment is intensive and frequent hospital visits are required, this is the start of a long journey...