Thank you for all your supportive and kind thoughts. I finished 2nd session of chemo as an outpatient, carrying around infusion and chemo bags for 3 days. No bad effects; I must be "a tough old hide," as my neighbor used to say. (Improved drugs, too.) I am Day 9 out of this treatment and my counts are "dropping nicely, as they should" the nurse informed me today. I'll just hang around in my new second home apt. in Houston, continue to get CBCs on Mon. and Thurs. and transfusions as needed, until my counts start to recover on their own (maybe Day 23.) Then, another bone marrow biopsy to see how effective this chemo was. My last session only brought my blasts down to 7%, then 5 days later those leukemia blasts went up to 13%! Luckily, my body is holding up to the battle.
To answer Linda, re. my counts dropping before I progressed from MDS to AML. While I was taking the Vidaza from Sessions 4-11, my counts were good on their own. My White Cells averaged 6. My Hemoglobin averaged 12-13. My Platelets 250-300K. Oct. 30 WC dropped to 2.50, and Nov. 28 they dropped to 1.60. Same dates, hemoglobin dropped to 11.8, then 10.1. Same dates platelets dropped from 191k to 94k. A week later the blasts showed up in my peripheral blood, 10%. Bone Marrow Biopsies seem to be the only way to measure blasts...but I guess if you see CBC counts continuely dropping and not recovering, that would indicate something's going on in that bone marrow.
