My brother has leukemia.

It has been a shocking and tearful week for my family. My brother, James, was diagnosed with leukemia. He has the form called chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML). The doctors have said that he has had this for some time, but it has gone undetected. At my birthday party, he thought that he hurt himself bowling. For several weeks, he complained of the pain, but he thought that he had just strained a muscle. His primary care doctor suggested doing an MRI and blood work. This is where they found that his white blood cell count was around 579,000, and it should be around 5,000. After a bone marrow test, they confirmed on Friday that it was CML. They immediatly began to hydrate him, and he was admitted to the ICU at Baptist Hospital. Luckily, he is in the chronic phase and not the blast crisis phase. Currently, they are trying to get his white blood cell count lower before starting chemo. To do this, he is hooked up to a dialysis type machine for six hours at a time. It is used to sluff off and remove as many of the white blood cells as possible. As of now, they are planning on him staying in the hospital for a week in a half to two weeks. More information about CML can be found on the Wikipedia website or the Mayo Clinic website. The doctors have said that they have never seen anyone with a white blood cell count as high as his count. Also, CML is rare for someone at his age (27) and health. Thank you for everyones phone calls, thoughts, and prayers during this difficult time for my family.