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Over three weeks ago, after long procrastinating, I decided to get my act together and complete all documents needed for my residency application. One of the things that I needed was the medical and chest x-ray certificate. So, on Friday I have taken a day off and went to a medical center to complete all tests. Everything went smooth and after all the measuring, urinating in the cup, blood sucking and a few other procedures I was through with it. At the end I was told that I should expect my results by Thursday, the following week. Sweet as…
Monday morning I received a call at the office. A nurse from the medical center asking me to come to see the doctor about my results. Oops… The red light went on. Something must be wrong. They didn’t do any fasting tests so the usual suspects like cholesterol and sugar where off the hook this time. Liver? White blood cells? Maybe I’ve some minor infection and they are slightly raised. I’ve made an appointment for the afternoon and pretty much spent the whole day worrying what it could be.
When I got to the doctor, he didn’t beat around the bush too long. He told me that my white blood cell count is raised and there are there are immature forms of white blood cells present in my blood. His initial diagnose - leukemia.
Oops! Where’s the air? I can’t breathe!
Everything that he said from now on seems blurry… He said that additional diagnose from a hematologist is required and made an appointment for me for Thursday. From that point it all went pretty quickly. Repeated blood test on Thursday, bone marrow test on Friday (NO! It doesn’t hurt! It is a funny feeling but it doesn’t hurt!), abdomen ultrasound on Monday. Next Thursday, another visit to the doctor. The diagnosis is confirmed. They have found the Philadelphia chromosome (more on that in the next post) which pretty much leaves no doubt. Final diagnosis - Chronic Myeloid Leukemia, probably in an early stage.
The same day my doctor applied to Health Funding Authority in Wellington for a drug called Glivec. It’s a new generation targeted drug that is supposed to allow for controlling the disease and getting the blood picture back to normal. The nice thing was that, even though the doctor said that we should expect the answer within a week or two, they called her back the next day saying that the application is approved and the treatment will be covered by them. So, this Thursday I’m starting the treatment and probably within the next two weeks it will be possible to say what is my response to the drug. There are different options and various opinions on how to treat CML but for now I have some more immediate concerns to take care of…
Everyone says that because I have leukemia, it is really hard to expect that my residency application will be approved. I simply refuse to accept that. I hope that the immigration service will show a little humanity and let me stay here. They have to understand the fact that I have been living and working here for 2 years and my whole life is New Zealand - my home-country of choice. I have a job, a car, a couch and a bloody oil heater that keeps us warm in our cold apartment.
I can’t imagine that I could get kicked out and lose all that (especially the heater :-) ). I would also lose the access to Glivec which poses a serious risk for my health. There is no guarantee I could easily get it in Poland.

So, I’m trying to keep positive and focus on things that need to be resolved in order of immediacy. More news to come as the situation unfolds. Words of support are welcome. :-)