Hi Neel,
As far as I understand most doctors now use low dose Thalidomide as Kirby wrote. Many years ago they tried to give the patients up to 800 mg/day but the patients could not take so much. Then the researchers found that lower doses gave better response and that the drug should be combined with Prednisone the first 3 months in tapering doses.
I started with 50 mg Thalidomide per day June 2010 and should have been taking 30 mg Prednisone/day according to my weight but took only 20 mg/day because of sleeping problems with Prednisone.
After 3 weeks my WBCs decreased and I had to take still lower doses of Thalidomide. Now I take 50 mg 4 days/week with very good result. Four weeks after starting with Thalidomide my platelets increased from 22 to 43 - they are now about 110. After 3 months I didn't need blood txs any longer. I had then been tx dependent since dx 4.5 years earlier. My HGB is now about 12.5.
Hope your mother will have a good response
!
Kind regards
Birgitta-A
72 yo, dx MDS Interm-1 2006, tx dependent from dx, Thalidomide, Prednisone, Exjade, Neupogen