This is my experience with Hairy Cell Leukemia.

I am a Chinese martial arts practitioner and teacher. I have studied my arts of Shaolin, Tai Chi Chuan, Ba Gua Chang, Shuai Chiao, Qi Gong and Aikido for over 26 yrs. I exercised daily, considered myself to be in excellent physical condition, ate as properly as I could, and had never had any form of major illness aside from the flu on very, very rare occasions.

Prior to my diagnosis, I started having complaints of unusual heartbeat rhythms, and had my doctor investigate. After checkups, EKG's, wearing a heart monitor for 30 days and so forth, the best he could diagnose was a problem with my mitral valve. He told me that it was minor and that if it started to get worse to come see him. This occurred during the middle to end of 2005.

During 2006, I started to notice that the heart problem was getting worse. Actually I didn't really notice it until later in the year. The problem was always there, showed up now and then, and went away. Gradually, it started to get more prevalent in my life. But this change was so gradual and slow that I just didn't seem to acknowledge it. As the year went on, it got more noticeable and I was having difficulty sleeping, night sweats, my heart would race with pounding in my ears when doing very simple tasks. Teaching my students Kung Fu got a little harder with each class, to the point where I had to actually sit to teach. Used the handrails more and more often, sat down instead of stood, and just slowly started to do things differently. I chalked it up the mitral valve issue and went on with life.  I have always been a strong willed, disciplined person who could handle whatever life threw me.

Somehow I kept pushing myself, believing it was just the mitral valve, so deal with it. Then one day in Sept of 2006, I had to spend about 1/2 hour on my couch recuperating from re-potting a plant. Finally - something clicked upstairs and I went back to my doctor.

I explained the situation to the nurse, the pounding in the ears from simple physical tasks, night sweats, and so forth. She decided to have some extra blood tests performed to check things like kidney function and such. This was on a Thursday. The following Monday, the doctors office was going frantic trying to locate me. That day I spent about 5 minutes at work. I called the doctor, they said to "Come in now." I show up, and my doctor tells me that he has to hospitalize me immediately. My blood tests were unbelievable. He told me he didn't understand how I was still conscious. Seems I had near zero white cells, no platelets, and a hemoglobin level of 3.7.  I told him it was just another day for me - a bit harder than yesterday, but just another day. Anyways, I ended up in the hospital for a week, in isolation, wearing a heart monitor and having about as much blood pumped into me as they were taking out for tests. Up to being actually hospitalized, I felt more tired than normal, less energetic, but I had gotten so used to this as the norm that it just didn't bother me as much.

During my stay, a bone marrow biopsy was done, and after I was released, it confirmed that I had HCL. My doctor told me that if I didn't treat it, it would kill me, and I simply replied, "Ok. Lets fix it."

I went thru chemo using pentostatin and got blood shots according to schedule and everything went A-okay. I only had one bad episode with the white blood cell shot where it felt like hell to move cause the shot was making all the major bone groups sore. But after that, the chemo and shots was easy.

I never had any problems with it at all. I was told I might experience some hair loss. So, knowing my luck at life, I started hoping that it would come back blonde and curly! I guess that idea spawned from something a high school teacher taught me a long time ago - out of every failure can come a successful event. So instead of worrying about hair loss, I started looking forward to being a curly blonde(needless to say, I didn't get that wish).

I look back on my treatment and my acknowledgement and acceptance of my problem, and I am somewhat amazed that it never bothered me. The fact that I had a form of leukemia bothered my family, girlfriend and co-workers more than it did me. I had just decided that this was something that did not belong, so it has to go. And I made it go. After my last chemo treatment, my oncologist told me that the HCL was all gone. Those were his "first words". I know he meant that I was in remission, and later he explained it as such, but - my "mind set" was the doctor said it was GONE. therefore its gone. Remission is irrelevant. Its gone.  And that's how I look at it today - although I understand and accept the concept of remission and am being monitored if it could return. I just like the fact that he said it was all gone. I think that is a more

positive boost to my morale than thinking remission "oh no, it might come back." If it does, I'll deal with it again, and win.

Talking to my doctor recently, he explained to me that prior to receiving my initial blood test results, the technician performing the tests had actually called him up and asked him if the doctor was playing a joke on him cause this could not be blood that was sent in for testing.  My doctor told me that if he was to drop my levels to what they were back in Sept 06, it would kill me.  But since everything changed so gradually, I just got used it.

After all was said and done, I got to wondering just how I was able to walk around and life my daily life, teach martial arts classes and such with no blood in me. It sure enough explained the heart trouble, which seemed to disappear after I got more blood in me. A philosophical ideal once taught to me by one of my martial instructors came to mind. he stated that my martial practice was like putting money in a savings account. Call it a "Martial Health Account." I could draw on this savings, which the Chinese call Chi, when I needed it. I can appreciate this philosophy and it does make sense. I do believe Chi exists, (which can basically be described as the body's bio-electric energy - that spark that makes us alive) and that conserving it, strengthening it, and keeping it "clear" does relate to a more healthy life. But my scientific mind says my dedication to my art, my discipline, my constant practice keeping me healthy and active all formed an "attitude" which I lived by. And it was this "attitude" that supported me during this crucial health issue.

Please feel free to contact me if you'd like to discuss my experience and especially the benefits of the Chinese Martial Health Arts.  I can be found on www.allexperts.com and am always open to discussion by email.

Sincerely,

Randy Martin

scorpioet2@neo.rr.com

Purple Bamboo Institute - Chinese Martial Health Concepts

http://home.neo.rr.com/pbicmhc/Index.htm