[Al's Wife]

There are no words to thank all of you for your words of support and encouragement. It is still too raw and I can't really talk without breaking down, but I do appreciate all the private messages and emails and phone numbers. And I promise if I can get where I can talk without this lump in my throat and I need anything, I will be calling y'all.
We have discussed the options we were given. The family decided to leave it up to Al whether he wanted to do nothing (in which case the doctor said weeks - not months) or to try the Dacogen even though he did not respond to the Vidaza which is similar. So he has decided to try the Dacogen and if he gets REALLY sick, then he wants to stop it and do nothing.
My question is (because I really can't remember back two years ago when he was on the Vidaza - seems like his only problem was tiredness - extreme tiredness, which is already has) does everyone get really sick on the Dacogen in the beginning. I've read so much about it in the past but my brain is just not functioning now so I'm asking y'all to help me out.
Mostly I'm concerned that with him being in a weakened condition that the Dacogen might kill him. The doctor said induction was out of the question for that reason. But I do remember that Dacogen is not like hard chemo; right?

He is on oxygen. And thank you so much, Beth, he did get the concentrator kind. They didn't have the smaller travel thing (my medical language is not as good as yours) but to be honest, I'm thinking Al won't use the oxygen if he's out. He may surprise me, but I'm already wondering if he'll even use the roller tank in the car. I am going to call the doctor's office on Monday and ask them to put in an order for the smaller travel thing (have no idea why he didn't in the first place) and maybe they'll bring that out. But he just doesn't want any reminder and I'll be shocked if I don't have to beg and plead (and threaten) him to wear it except when we go to the doctors, even though it does help him. He's in the low 80's without it and with it, he's in the low 90's so you'd think that alone would make him want to keep it on all the time.

Okay, back to my Dacogen questions. Is the Dacogen going to make him a lot weaker or? If he can't tolerate it, if he stops it immediately will his body recover or has it done its damage and he will have lost what quality of life he has? Has anyone with the platelet problem (he has 0 platelets now) and the bad cytogenetics had any improvement on Dacogen?

Any help is appreciated. And thanks again for all the prayers.