Hi Amy,
Good that your mother will see a specialist in MDS!
You know if her Serum EPO was high initially she probably won't respond to Aranesp. Our kidneys make EPO and when the HGB is low the kidneys increase our own Serum EPO.
If our own Serum EPO is more than 500 initially Aranesp (EPO) hardly ever has any effect. You should ask her doctor about the value of her Serum EPO before she was treated with Aranesp. My Serum EPO was more than 800 initially and I didn't get Aranesp because I would probably not respond.
Here is an abstract about Aranesp (erythropoietin) and response:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1...ubmed_RVDocSum
Kind regards
Birgitta-A
70 yo, dx MDS Interm-1 May 2006, transfusion dependent (90 units of red blood cells), Desferal and Ferriprox (not approved in the US) for iron overload, Neupogen 2 injections/week for low white blood cells, asymptomatic