JaqJohn - Your course on Gleevec is familiar to a lot of us, including me. I was alarmed at how completely different I felt, almost immediately, on Gleevec. I, too, was given allopurinol, but that's a standard sort of protection given early on when there is expected to be a lot of "tumor death" - it helps your body get rid of the dead bodies! I will caution you, however, that the combo of allopurinol and diuretics plus Gleevec's own (now well-known) effect on the kidneys, caused my creatinine level to rise (and BUN). There is literature on this and it is well-acknowledged. A nephrology consult didn't turn up anything except this odd and supposedly benign effect of Gleevec, but the doc most certainly stopped the diuretic. (The allopurinol had already been stopped, as is usual.) But as a consequence, and on the subject of adding pills, it was found that I had secondary hyperparathyroidism from this high creatinine, and now have to take Vitamin D3 and Calcitriol forever. So, just be aware of this and make sure you note your creatinine level on your next CMP. Also note your BUN and GFR on the CMP.
One thing I must add. It is a common misconception that the diuretics help with Gleevec's edema problem. They really don't. You don't have "too much fluid" exactly; it's more that the interstitial cell fluid balance (the "in" and the "out" of the cell walls) is affected by PDGFR in Gleevec (among a few other kinases that are off-target hits by the Gleevec). So, all you are going to do with a diuretic is overwork your kidneys and visit the bathroom a lot. It is true, however, that it seems you can make the edema worse by eating a lot of salt. The pure, hard, sad fact is: You will never rid yourself of this problem completely as long as you are on Gleevec, particularly the periorbital edema. Reducing the dosage definitely helps, however, so maybe that will be in your future. Better yet is to switch to another TKI. Dasatinib, for instance, even though it too hits PDGFR, somehow it's either a lessened hit or a different kind of hit, because it's usually night and day for people and their toad eyes. Was for me! At any rate, people report that Tasigna (even though it is similar to Gleevec in its makeup) is better on the edema, dasatinib is even better than Tasigna, and now we're sometimes hearing that Bosutinib is the best, on this particular side effect. Good luck!
