It’s like Astrophage and Taumoeba (non-PHM fans look it up!).  This is only an analogy.

CLL [Astrophage] attacks and eats your blood cells that fight infection throughout your bone marrow, blood, lymphocytes.  Eventually your Sun goes out.

In this cancer, you’re supposed to wait and do nothing, monitoring blood test counts until certain symptoms and numbers indicate there’s been an escalation, or just kiss your ass goodbye.

But it turns out medicine has found some alt treatment options [Taumoeba, in our analogy] that can target, slow down, or possibly even kill (?) the evil cancer cells in the blood.   Sun maybe not go out yet!  Facts (not AI) you learn while sleepless in StL.

I was sleepless because a new symptom showed up last night.  Pain went from my (R) ear down to my neck/throat area, but not like a sore throat.  CLL cancer can affect the lymph nodes and glands in that area, or even allow a secondary cancer to get in, and that’s one of the first signs that intervention may be in order.

CLL is an autoimmune disease, so your resistance to infection is down, and severe viruses can’t be fought off as well.  I.e., do not get flu/COVID/ pneumonia.  My vax are up-to-date, but I just had two bad weeks of a COVID/ flu-type (non-diagnosed) infection, and now this.

This is an over-simplification of the disease, but you get the point.  I’m mainly logging this for my own reference.  I try to stay philosophical (fatalistic) about it, but sometimes it reminds me of my mortality.  I wish I had an Eridian (like “Rocky”) to interface with.