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Old Tue Jan 16, 2018, 03:13 PM
Sue&Dave Sue&Dave is offline
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Join Date: Nov 2016
Location: New York
Posts: 50
Hi Barb - Welcome to the boards and I'm sorry to hear that your W&W period may be coming to an end. Since you were diagnosed so long ago and didn't have too many symptoms it is easy to become complacent and think that things won't change. I have to remember that every day because my husband has had such a good response to Vidaza that it's easy to fall into the trap to think things won't get worse.

I find it interesting that your current symptoms are very similar to what my husband experienced when his W&W period was over. Honestly his blasts didn't increase significantly - never went over 6% per his BMB, but his other symptoms were so bad that the doc had no choice but to start him on Vidaza. His numbers had slowly drifted down (all 3), but the main concerns were his low-grade fevers and bone numbing exhaustion. He didn't even have the strength to walk by the time we started him on Vidaza. We probably waited a bit too long to get him going on treatment, but his hemo wanted to wait a full 6 months after he completed an 8 week regimen of IV antibiotics for an unrelated issue.

I encourage you to explore all possibilities for treatment going forward. Do you have a donor by chance? My husband does not - therefore we are riding the Vidaza train as long as possible (with hopes that a cure will be found before the V stops working!) Also, you may want to consider enrolling in a clinical trial if available. Is The James a MDS Center of Excellence? Well worth the effort to be followed by a COE. We are a 3+ hour drive from our COE, but only travel there every few months to meet with his MDS doc. Otherwise his local hemo takes care of everything.

Again, I'm sorry to hear about this most recent turn of events, but much progress has been made in MDS research since you were diagnosed. Best to you!
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