[PattiDean]

Dean Linda and Slip UP 2,

Thank you for your replies.

Linda, I am also questioning in my mind if Dean was diagnosed correctly. I am becoming upset because the doctor doesn't seem to ever answer our questions. He gives us short answers and has never gone over the results of the first BMB that was done in the hospital when Dean was told he had MDS. All this doctor did was write down RAEB-t on a piece of paper and told us this is what Dean had, then he wrote 17%, and said that was the percent of blasts. When I asked what blasts were, he told me not to worry he was going to take care of my husband.

Dean and I have been so physically and emotionally overwhelmed these last six weeks, going to the doctor, going for transfusions, and being in the hospital, that we were just happy to have a doctor taking care of everything, while we concentrated on Dean's health. Now that Dean is improving, we are beginning to realize that this doctor is not giving us information, he just makes statements and wants us to accept what he is telling us.

I did ask if other people have had such a good response on their second cycle of Dacogen, and he just said, "only Dean matters, no one else". That didn't exactly answer my question.

I have talked to Dean and he agrees that he is now having an uncomfortable feeling with this doctor, and maybe we should think about seeing someone else, or as you suggested, contacting Moffitt since it is so close.

Slip up 2, we have no idea if any chromosome is involved, we were never told. I will definitely be asking the doctor on Tuesday.

Thank you again to each of you for your advice and helping Dean and I deal with all of this. My mind is racing, on one hand I know we should be happy, on the other, I don't have a good feeling about what we are being told.

I guess if I knew other people had this type of improvement in two cycles of Dacogen, and their treatment was stopped, I would feel better. It just seems too early to stop Dacogen, and too early to know that Dean is definitely in remission. Am I wrong? Can a doctor know if someone is in remission without doing another BMB?