[iontheball]

Hi everyone,
I'm new to the forum. I have a question about my mom. She has been under the care of a hematologist for several years and had been told she had "poorly functioning bone marrow" but never needed any treatment. In November 2011 she was diagnosed with small cell lung cancer (limited stage) and started chemo. Her platelets were 110 when she started chemo. (Her RBC and WBC were in low normal range). After 2 rounds of chemo, her platelets had dropped to mid 20's. After several weeks of not improving, they did a bone marrow biopsy and diagnosed her with CMML. Her oncologist started her on N-plate. After 4-5 treatments of that, her platelets were up to 137. The oncologist stopped the Nplate last week and wants to resume chemo (at a 20% dose reduction) today if platelets are still up. Also while we were waiting for the platelets to go up her hematocrit dropped and she has had 2 blood transfusions over the past few months. Her hematocrit last week was 27. The dr spoke to them last week about possibly starting Aranesp to help. After reading about it, that scares me because of possibly causing tumors to grow larger and the other side effects as well. However, I know once she starts chemo all of her levels will drop. She's had 2 rounds of chemo--the dr said he was hoping for at least 4 rounds. Sorry this is so long winded. Any advice would be appreciated!
Thank you!