My CLL story starts in January 2001. At that time I was 57 years old and running a business. After a routine health check my GP rang me to say that she wanted me to come in and see her. But let me first introduce myself. I am Hessel Baartse, born and bred in Haarlem, the Netherlands (also known as Holland); came to Australia in 1968, newly married, and settled in Sydney. A few years after the birth of our two children we moved to Adelaide, the capitol of the state of South Australia, where we still live. Now back to the story.
The GP told me that my blood counts showed that I had low level CLL (Chronic Lymphocytic Leukaemia) which according to the medical profession is an incurable disease. She also told me that I did not need to worry too much about it as it is a slow moving disease and it might never become an issue for me. At that stage my WBC (White Blood Count) was about 20 (thousand) and deemed to be not yet problematic (the reference range for WBC is 4.0 – 11.0). CLL causes the bone marrow to produce lots of faulty lymphocytes and lymphocytes are included in the WBC.
 Enjoying life with my youngest granddaughter Leila |
I was referred to an oncologist in a private practice in Adelaide and during my first visit I asked him if there was anything at all I should be doing as far as lifestyle and/or diet was concerned. Not a single suggestion was forthcoming. This was no surprise as doctors receive little or no training in nutrition, which basically shows us that they regard what we put into our bodies as having little effect other than the chemicals they give us to suppress the symptoms of diseases. I asked him if he knew the cause of CLL, which he did not. Again, no surprise as the whole thrust in the cancer industry is finding a cure that will make them big money.
A typical example of the crooked logic showed up in a grant that was approved for one of the hospitals in Adelaide. 90% of the money was to go to finding a cure and 10% to research in prevention. Yet a few weeks later there was an item in the same paper stating that the incidence of cancer was expected to double in ten years. One would think that they would go flat out preventing that from happening. At that first visit I got the impression that things were not that bad as I was told that a new tablet had come available that would take care of things if it became necessary. In due time I found out that he was talking about the latest chemo therapy treatment. And so I went into the ‘watch & wait’ stage with regular blood tests in order to keep an eye on things. Sometime during this stage I had a bone marrow biopsy done which confirmed the CLL diagnosis.