[Neel]

Thanx Kirby,

My father was also given neupogen initially at the time of diagnosis, we not having a slight hint what MDS means at that time. However he too responded well too neupogen and his WBC increased. However our ayurvedic physician was against neupogen. Fortunately the ayurvedic medicines worked reasonably well and there was no need for any other drug or neupogen as his all the cell counts increased and were in normal range for arnd 4 months , but then they gradually started declining. Seems the disease became resistant to ayurvedic medicines. Recently we hesitantly got one shot of neupogen and my father has again responded well to neupogen and his WBC increased. However as his blast count are already very high, so we are hesitant for more infusion of neupogen.

One thing i wanted to know frm u is, why r u taking neupogen ? cos of neutropenic fever or cos of fear that if ANC is lower then 500 then u r at the risk of catching infection ?

One more thing kirby, we are thinking of starting thalidomide, can u tell me abt ur experience in regard to thalidomide.

Does thalidomide increases all the cell lines like Hb, WBC and platelets or only work on one or two of the cell lines ?

As you sstated that u were taking neupogen, it infers that thalidomide was not effective on WBC ? Am i right ?

Moreover what all other medicine did u took along with thalidomide during ur good response with it for 30 months ? What side effects did u had ? and how thalidomide helped in ur counts ?

Thanx, and all the best and god bless

Regards,

neel