[Sue&Dave]

Going out of round 3 of Vidaza my husband has seen some promising results. The first 2 rounds really took a toll on him with significant fatigue and malaise (although he had that going in). Thankfully he only needed 2 transfusions right after round 1 (1 platelet and 1 packed red). While I wouldn't say he breezed through round 3 he did recover more quickly and had less 'down' days. He has blood work 2x week and we chart his counts (doesn't everybody? lol). Except for his platelets (that have been all over the place, but staying above 40 for the 1st time in over 6 months), we have seen a gradual increase in all of his counts. For the first time last week his ANC was above 1.5 and we were told to go off all of his prophylactic antibiotics and antifungals and he could also go off his low microbial diet (his ANC was going as low as .16) Celebration! Then yesterday his ANC was back down to .9 (back on the prophys per the doc). We will continue to take precautions and avoid salad bars, buffets and the like. But we are not avoiding crowds anymore and living like we did before treatment. Assuming that the Vidaza is working which I really think it is (next BMB in May), is this something to expect - ups and downs with the counts?