[Bossywife]

In 2008 my husband (50 yrs old at the time) was admitted into the hospital with rigors and fever. He hadn't been feeling well recently, and had some blood work done the day before. His doctor had been trying to reach us all day to tell us he had diabetes.

In the hospital, we also discovered he had low Platelets, WBC, and RBC. He was put on 3 kinds of anti-biotics and the fever went away and he was released with no explanation of what had happened.

Through the years, he gets his CBC done with his AIC (diabetes) every 3 months, and his platelets have always been low (between 40-90) as well as his WBC and RBC. This has always bugged me, but his doctor just always told him that "some people have low platelets".

Flash forward to 2014 when his wife (me) has had enough, and insists on seeing a specialist. I started noticing he looked pale, and was losing weight (he is not a big guy). We saw an Internal Medicine doctor in July 2014 who also said it was probably nothing. Then we saw a Haematologist in Dec 2014 who told us right away that he suspected my hubby had Hairy Cell Leukemia. It was ruled out a week later. Then we waited for a Bone Marrow Biopsy. He works at the Cancer Clinic and happened to be there on a day when one of the doctors had room to do one, and shuffled him in.

First one March 15 - dry tap
Second one March 30 - dry tap, but able to diagnose MDS RAEB-1 with moderate fibrosis and unspecified blasts

SO, here we are. Waiting for the Haematologist to come back from vacation so we can see if he's going to start Azacitidine (the oncologist wants to start it asap).

I've been reading and studying everything I can about this thing, and freaking myself out about prognosis numbers. I realize that this is mostly a disease of the elderley, so the prognosis numbers are quite skewed that way. My husband is young in comparison, healthy and still plays hockey and works around the farm. He has no bleeding or brusing, and he feels fairly good except for some unexplained tiredness.

I'm confused about something with the Azacitidine... if it fails, I'm reading that prognosis is poor. 4-6 months. Would he be better off not doing it? he seems to be fine as is. Does anyong know anything about this?