brianbibbly [email] said at 11:02 AM 06-17-2004: I don't know what that means but it doesn't sound good. Good luck to you Pokey. Know that you have my best wishes.
pokey [email] said at 9:10 PM 06-17-2004: It means that two of my chromosomes broke apart n swapped pieces. It also means that I am part of the majority of people with my kind of cancer, and therefore might get less shafted on treatment :D The swap is what is telling my cells to freak out.
pokey [email] said at 9:13 PM 06-17-2004: It keeps my white blood cells in check, and has a neat side effect that it can genetically modify my cells, fixing the translocation, so my body stops making broken cells.
It is a mutation, so I am the only one in my family with it.
pokey [email] said at 9:15 PM 06-17-2004: It's bad in that it is what is making me sick, but it is good because it makes me a common case of CML, and will make my insurance company more likely to approve my treatment.
amy [email] said at 4:42 PM 06-17-2004: The Philadelphia Chromosome is the place where the abnormality that causes leukemia exists, which you would all know if you had looked at pokey's leukemia website link.
It does sound very sci/fi tho doesn't it. At least you have something that if spun the right way can sound really cool. It would suck harder to have a disease that had no fun chormosome abnormalities or catch phrases.
Maybe Josh could all make us t-shirts that say "My Pokey is Philadelphia Chromosome Positive!". That would rock.
pokey [email] said at 9:18 PM 06-17-2004: I like being able to say I am a mutant. It's better than having cancer and NOT being able to say I am a mutant!
