My father is age 70 with late stage CLL. No current treatments other than weekly blood transfusions. I live far away and am trying to determine when to go home. I d go now, but I have kids who are sick with a fever and respiratory virus. He is not hospitalized or under the care of hospice, but sees the oncologist weekly. My mother is caring for him at home. He has had fluid inside and outside the lungs, and today was told he has hemolytic anemia, with a hemoglobin level of 3.? and wbc over 400,000, platelets low, but I don t have a number. He appears yellow and has blood in his urine. My mother plans to take him to the ER in the morning for a transfusion. This may be the last transfusion. Any guess as to a timeline?
Thanks for your question on Chat Doctor.CLL is chronic lymphocytes leukemia. It is blood malignancy.  Involves mostly bone marrow and liver. It causes blood hemolysis and decrease blood production due to bone marrow infiltration. So his hemoglobin is reduced with low platelets. Due to hemolysis, he is having high bilirubin and this causes yellow appearance of him. Low platelets can cause spontaneous bleeding, so his urine is having blood. And sever anemia (He 3) can cause pulmonary edema and pleural effusion. So all these are definitely not good signs for survival. In my opinion he has less than 1 month.