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Originally Posted by kwaidz
Thanks for the response, Neil. She will have a Reduced intensity transplant and we just got the gates. She is getting a PSCT two days after her birthday, March 22.
Right now, she has completed a 4th round of dacogen and her blast levels are below 5%. So now she has RA instead of RAEB2 MDS. It has been a crazy journey to get her here. She has had one round of pneumonia (back in December) and her neutrophils dropped to 0. She stayed inside and away from people until her ANC improved. We are trying to keep her healthy and with a 1st grader and a baby in the house, it's a challenge.
From her calendar, she will have 4 days of busulfan and 2 of fludarabine followed by 2 days of rest prior to transplant. Is this pretty common? How sick will this make her? She is feeling pretty good right now, gets tired easily, but her blood counts are much better than where we started. I'm worried about the whole transplant process. Somebody tell me it will be fine and she'll do well.
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K,
Chemo, rest, transplant. That's the established protocol.
Some transplants begin with radiation, some with busulfan or another drug. Fludarabine is another commonly used chemo drug. Your mom may have little or no reaction to these drugs (my wife had cyclophosphamide and had no trouble with it), but they might also make her feel pretty icky. The effects, whatever they are, should be temporary.
Those drugs are used for full transplants, so I'm not sure what makes it a reduced intensity transplant. Either they use smaller doses or it's about the lack of direct radiation.
With her blasts down, her ANC back up, and the attention you're giving to her care, I think you have plenty of reasons to feel confident. Transplants are serious treatment involving risks that none of us want to take, but they've become so common that hospitals have a lot of experience with them, and they've used that experience to learn how best to take care of their patients and minimize risks.
One more positive: there's nothing more likely to keep everyone's spirits up than children in the house!