can some one give any advice please? grandmother diagnosed with 'low level / grade leukemia'

[washironcookclean]

she went to the haematologist (?? excuse any terrible spelling) after a blood test for a general health question revealed a high number of white cells and was told she has low level / grade leukemia. she went to the appointment herself so we don't know exactly what has been said from the consultant and more importantly what will happen to my grandmother ( who is being breezily vague at answering any questions!) other than there is an app in 3 weeks to sort out treatment (she has been told it will prob be a tablet form f chemotherapy, she won't (or be extremely unlikely to) lose her hair, and be treated as an outpatient.

so, what is it? what tends to happen, ie does the treatment work or should we be bracing ourselves for things to get worse or they should get better?

any info is helpful, really, as this is all the info i have i can't work out from cruk site exactly what 'type' of cancer / leukemia setcion are relevant and am trying to scare myself witless.

thanks for your time in reading and any replies.

I'm sorry you've had this news. Is it chronic leukaemia?

DH's grandfather had it, treated as an outpatient. Was told it would never go away but it wouldn't kill him. It didn't. He died from something utterly unrelated at a very respectable age.

Can somebody go to some appointments with her and find out what is happening?

This is what dh's grandad had. Very common in older people.

Hi showofhands, thanks for the reply.

one of my uncles is hoping to go with her to the app in three weeks regardng arranging treatment, but it does depend if she will let him go with her, she can be quite private and we're not relying on being able to speak to a consultant in case she doesn't want to be accompanied in the next app.

i think the really big question is, as you've mentioned in your post, will it get worse and really serious, could she die of it or is it something that will just be there in the background? from my grandmother's description of the appointment it is nothing more than a slight inconvenience!!!

cross pots! just read the site you've linked me to, it's really helpful, thanks ever so much Showofhands.

cross posts, not pots!! good grief!!

Hi, sorry to hear about your terrible news.

There are lots of types of leukaemia, and chronic leukaemia, and therefore lots of different treatments available.

New treatments are being discovered all the time.

There are some great sites for leukaemia on the net: leukaemia care, leukaemia research, cancerbacup, and also sites for each specific type of leukaemia,
Leukaemia care also have a wonderful telephone support service that is available 24hrs a day.

But it's important not to scare yourself silly, remember your grandmother is a person not a statistic,