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Vidaza
My husband was diagnosed in 2/08 with MDS RARS INT-1 secondary because of chemo treatments he had in 1998 for Non Hodgkin's Lymphoma. He has multiple chromosome damage including monosomy 7. We have seen 2 oncologist/hematologists, 1 MDS specialist, & 2 transplant doctors. After talking with the MDS specialist my husband, Pete, decided to try Vidaza. We were aware of the fact that your counts would go down after the treatment. Sure enough it did. Pete ended up in the hospital & had to have 2 pints of blood. We discussed the Vidaza treatment with Pete's hematologist/oncologist he sees off & on at the Mayo Clinic. This Dr. thought my husband should do the wait & watch since Pete had been feeling so good & his counts were pretty decent before the Vidaza treatment. After a lot of thought Pete decided to stop any further treatments of Vidaza at this time. He said maybe later on down the line he would start the treatments again. Ever since his counts have been improving.
6/3/08:
WBC 7.44, Neutrophils 5.15, RBC 4.59, HGB 13.8, Plt 260
7/8/08:
WBC 4.42, Neutrophils 4.94, RBC 4.42, HGB 14.6, Plt 204
So you can see that his counts are continuing to get better. He feels great. Pete's doctor here in Des Moines & the transplant Dr. at the Univ of MN think that the one Vidaza treatment is why his counts are doing so well. We don't know what to think. Pete hasn't had a BMB since 1/28/08, so we don't know if there has been any change in his chromosome damage. His Dr. doesn't want to do a BMB yet. She wants to wait & watch. She is very happy with his counts.
We are hoping & praying that something miraculous has happened due to the Vidaza treatment. If he can do this well after only 1 treatment then hopefully this will mean that the Vidaza treatments can be spread out indefinitely. I don't think any of the doctors know for sure. We are very thankful for this wonderful news & pray that it continues. We will keep you all posted.
We continue to pray for all MDS patients & their families.
Regards,
Pete & Sandy Peterson
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