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Related Diseases
Chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) shares some similar features and symptoms with other closely related types of leukemia.
Disease- and Treatment-Related Pain
People with cancer can have pain caused by the cancer itself, its treatment, or both. They may also have pain caused by other health problems that are unrelated to cancer (like arthritis or diabetes).
Increased pain does not mean that the cancer is getting worse, but you should always tell your healthcare team if you have increased pain.
It’s important to remember that no matter what the cause, pain can be treated.
Follow-Up Care
Click here for information about follow-up care, including what to expect, long-term and late effects of treatment, survivorship clinics, and other resources such as The National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) treatment guidelines.
Related Links- Download or order The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's factsheet Hairy Cell Leukemia
Follow-Up Care
Click here for information about follow-up care, including what to expect, long-term and late effects of treatment, survivorship clinics, and other resources such as The National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) treatment guidelines.
Related Links- Download or order The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s free booklet, Myeloproliferative Neoplasms.
Follow-Up Care
Click here for information about follow-up care, including what to expect, long-term and late effects of treatment, survivorship clinics, and other resources such as The National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) treatment guidelines.
Related Links- Download or order The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s free booklet, Myeloproliferative Neoplasms.
Follow-Up Care
Click here for information about follow-up care, including what to expect, long-term and late effects of treatment, survivorship clinics, and other resources such as The National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) treatment guidelines.
Related Links- Download or order The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s free booklet, Myeloproliferative Neoplasms.
Caitlyn
My world started to turn upside down in January of 2019 after starting to exercise and trying to lose weight. At first, I thought I had pulled a muscle in my leg. The cramping continued to increase and turned into radiating bone pain. I went to get an x-ray to make sure nothing was broken. There were no broken bones or fractures, so they sent me on my way.
Thomas
I had bariatric surgery on May 11, 2022. At the time, I weighed just under 600 pounds, and I understood that there was a higher possibility for complications. My three-hour procedure turned into a six-hour procedure, and my overnight stay in the hospital turned into a week. During surgery, they discovered my spleen was significantly larger than normal, and in the days following my surgery, I kept losing blood. After two exploratory surgeries, four units of blood, and a trip to the ICU later, I was finally released from the hospital with no confirmed cause of bleeding.
Fertility
“Fertility” describes the ability to conceive a biological child. Human reproduction requires three elements: mature sperm, mature eggs and a person with a uterus to carry the pregnancy and give birth. Some cancers and some cancer treatments affect fertility.
Follow-Up Care
Click here for information about follow-up care, including what to expect, long-term and late effects of treatment, survivorship clinics, and other resources such as The National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) treatment guidelines.
Related Links- Download or order The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's free booklet, Chronic Myelomonocytic Leukemia (CMML) and Juvenile Myelomonocytic Leukemia (JMML)
Jane
In 2008, I retired from teaching art, mostly because I was feeling tired all the time and didn’t want the program I was running to suffer because I couldn’t keep up. I figured it was old age. I was enjoying my first full year of retirement when I woke up with a backache. After two months of tests, in July 2010, I was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, a treatable but not yet curable blood cancer in the plasma cells of the bone marrow.
Kennedy
Kennedy was diagnosed with mono at age 12. Within a week she developed swelling and had a hard time breathing when laying down. Our pediatrician advised us to go to the children’s hospital where they did CT scans, MRIs and discovered a soft-sized mass pressing against her airway. There we got the news you never want to hear, our girl had lymphoma. Before that day, she was a normal child, playing volleyball, singing in the choir, being a kid.
Carol
Meet carol. hodgkin survivor. indiana. Carol was diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma in 2010. After being a stay-at-home mom, she went back to school to get her teaching degree and found out she had a grapefruit size tumor in her chest when she was one week away from finishing her student teaching. She put off finding a teaching job for a year while going through six months of chemotherapy. She was able to work as a learning specialist while going through her treatments as she had a very supportive principal.
Kate
"You have cancer" is one of the scariest things you might ever hear. When Kate was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL), she initially thought about how she wasn't strong enough and how she wasn't ready to die. Then she calmed down and told herself she didn't really have a choice.
"You have to do this; you have to be strong."
Bonnie
I went to the ER with chest pain in March of 2013 when my doctor saw a spot in my CAT scan the size of an orange. A few days later, I had a biopsy and it came back as stage 3 large B-cell lymphoma.
Since I was only 29, he thought I would be strong enough to take the treatments so he planned to hit me with everything he had. Within a few days, I had a mediport in on the left side of my chest because the spot was on the right but the cancer was so aggressive it had already spread across my entire left side.
Matthew
Our Matthew was first diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) in August 2015 at the age of 12. He relapsed with ALL in December 2016 and underwent his first bone marrow transplant in February 2017 with marrow from an anonymous male donor from New Jersey.
In January 2019, he was diagnosed with mixed phenotype acute leukemia (MPAL). He underwent his second bone marrow transplant in February 2019 with marrow from his first donor's twin brother. Our two families have become very close since we were able to meet after the first transplant.
Liam
One of the Boston Bruin’s biggest fans, Liam Fitzgerald garnered national recognition as the “fist bump kid” and went on to raise almost $153,000 for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) to help fight blood cancers.
Nikki
I was 24 and otherwise healthy, hiking the Grand Canyon (literally) with friends, when my neck started to hurt and my arm started to swell. By the end of my vacation two days later, I was in so much pain that I could barely turn my head or lift my arm. I returned to Detroit and went straight from the airport to the ER, where, after hours of tests, I learned about a softball-sized tumor in my chest cavity, which was pressing on veins near my heart, causing blood clots in my shoulder, which resulted in the swelling and pain.
Joy
On December 29, 2011, I heard those numbing words “you have cancer.” I was 23 years old, about to turn 24 and my whole world came to a screeching halt. After months of feeling “off,” multiple visits to all kinds of doctors, repeat blood work, scans and biopsies, it was finally determined that I had non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
Debra
In October 2011, while at work, I fell after attempting to sit on a chair, and I went to the emergency for x-rays. As soon as the technician began the process, he entered the room to ask if I had scoliosis. I replied, "no" and he proceeded with the exam.
Nicole
I first became involved in Team In Training (TNT) and The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) in March of 2020 because I was very interested in running the New York City Marathon. I knew that I wanted to run for a charity that meant something to me, so I knew I had to be a part of this team.
Zachary
Two months after we were married, my husband was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) in July 2021. I was 33 weeks pregnant with our first baby when he was admitted to St. Louis University Hospital for the next month of induction treatment. Prior to diagnosis, Zach had been experiencing fatigue and palpitations and would become winded just walking up our flight of stairs. We thought he was having residual effects from some prior illnesses that he was hospitalized for in April and May. We know now that those instances were the beginning of his immune system starting to fail.
David
My beloved husband, David served the community of Arlington, Texas, through the fire department for 38 years. Throughout his career, he served the city and trained and mentored other up-and-coming firefighters. He retired in 2017, and just nine months later, he was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia (AML), a very aggressive blood cancer. His oncologists believe it had simmered in David's marrow for a couple of years before it went acute. It came on with similar symptoms to the common flu.