[rdavidp]

An update:

We are now 10 days past the last day of chemo. Neutrophill count after chemo is now 0. She is getting platlett transfusions every few days and blood transfusion about once a week. Mouth sores developed middle of last week, and after filling a small wastebasket full of hair for three days, I cut her hair real short this past Friday. She had real long, thick red hair. The hair is short and thin now, but it seems that the hair is not falling out as much now. We are still waiting for full results of the bone marrow biopsy a week ago. Very early preliminary results showed no blast cells. The go forward plan is another bone marrow biopsy in a couple of more weeks with most likely maintenance chemo until bone marrow transplant in near future, 6 to 12 months.

One thing I have noticed is that on March 8, our doctor finally diagnosed my wife with MDS, very high risk RAEB-II with 8% blasts with auer rods. The blast cells were coming from white blood cells, and that was crowding out the normal red blood and platelett cells, and genetic test results alone were indicative of AML from the biopsy taken on Feb. 23. When we have daily rounds with the doctor, the word leukemia is being used instead of MDS since starting inpatient chemo a few days after our diagnosis and treatment plan on March 8. Maybe the doctor feels that even though less than 20% blast cells, with the genetic test results and other factors, diagnosis of high risk RAEB-II MDS versus AML does not really matter, and might as well call it leukemia?