[amykdb]

Hello-

First of all this site has been so helpful to me. Reading over past posts has been so educational. Thanks to all of your for sharing your experiences here and building a community of resources and friendship!

My mother was diagnosed this past March with MDS or AA; they are treating it as MDS. Her labs have been off for about three years now. She had a very bad case of herpes zoster in 11/2006, and since then (or maybe even before) her blood counts have been compromised. The earliest lab report I have is from 4/2007 and shows: WBC 4.1, RBC 3.27, HGB 11.3, HCT 33.8, PLT 260. She held at or around these numbers until just before Christmas 2008. On 12/11/08 her CBC showed: WBC 2.9, RBC 2.8, HGB 10.3, HCT 31, PLT 179.

She was not referred to a hematologist until January 2009. She was in chronic pain after the herpes zoster, and they just basically ignored the labs that indicated a coagulation disorder. When we finally saw a hematologist, they completed 2 BMBs and determined that she has chromosome abnormalities: +1, der (1;7) (q10;p10) [4]. She also has giant platelets, abnormally formed cells, and is extremely hypocellular (less than 5% cellularity).

In April 2009, her hematologist diagnosed her as intermediate 1 or 2 and said that she has about 3 - 5 years to live. She is currently 64 years-old. I questioned his prognosis based on the chromosome 7 deletion, and he said that chromosome 5 is the one to be concerned about. So, I clearly question his ability already... Anyway, he started her on 200 mg aranesp injections on April 10th, and they just moved her up to 300 mg on May 7th. Now, here is the very concerning part, take a look at how much her labs have changed in just the past few weeks. Is this at all normal? Should he be looking to see if it has progressed to AML? It seems to me that her levels are dropping quickly, especially since they held steady undiagnosed at low-levels for such a long time.

On 3/31 (pre-aranesp), her CBC showed:
WBC 2.5
HGB 8.1
HCT 24.1
PLT 187
RBC 2.29
RDW 17.2

on 4/15, her CBC showed:
WBC 2.5
HGB 8.1
HCT 24.3
PLT 205
RBC 2.24
RDW 20.4

on 5/14, her CBC showed:
WBC 1.9
HGB 7.4
HCT 22.4
PLT 199
RBC 2.07
RDW 22.5

Please let me know your thoughts, and be honest. Thanks for reading this.

Amy