[Linda]

Hi,
My husband has been on Vidaza since Feb 06. His Dr. said that it either will work or it won't. What this means is that for some MDS patients you see results within 4 months. If not then it is not the right med for you. This disease has only had Meds for about 6 years. Before that it was just transfusions. I could be wrong, but that is what he told us.

My husband was responding by the 3rd month. He did pretty well. Now, though, the Dr is trying to spread it out a bit. We haven't hit on the right week count yet. When he waited 7 weeks it was too long. His counts began slipping some again. 6 weeks wasn't great either. He is now trying 5 week spread between vidaza weeks.

My husband was just diagnosed last year. I am sure he had it for about 1-2 years before that. He has had symptoms that long. I thank God that he went to a new Dr. that did blood work and paid attention.
Hope this helps!

About the counts, each week when we go to the oncology center, blood work is done. We get a print out on the spot. We have tracked the counts since the beginning. These can be explained by the nurses if you ask. Ours are more than happy to tell you what it all means. The fact that your dad has <5% blasts is good. Blasts are (imature cells?) I am pretty sure that is the cancer part of the equation. The higher the blasts, the closer to AML. My husband was border line a year ago.