Azacytidine, 5AZ

[Kathryn]

Hi everyone, I hope that your day is going well.

Does anyone have any info. on or experience with Azacytidine? This is the chemo that my father started yesterday via injections. He rec’d. two shots in each arm. Today he feels bad and has diarrhea. He also fell, but apparently didn’t get hurt. They said that his roughest days are to be around the 13th day…..

I welcome and and all input & advice.

Thanks,

Kathryn

[Terri]

Kathryn, He should get an Antinausea medicine before the shots and it should help with the Nausea. Bob had some reaction the first time but since he takes the antinausea Zofran and sometimes TUms the stomach thing has not been a problem, Check some of my earlier post, I wish your Dad starts feeling better

[Kathryn]

Hey Terri,

prior to his inujections he does get an IV w/ anti-ausea med., but I am not sure what it is. He tried to get the pills, but ins. wouldn’t cover it.I’ll definitely check out the earlier posts for info..

Did the doc. tell your husband what vitamins & supplements to take? My friend told me about a juice called Mangosteen. It is supposed to be very high in antioxidants. I thought about getting some for my dad, but wasn’t sure how well it would work during chemo. Do you have any nutritional suggestions? I know that they have to be cleared by the doc., but I could at east give my dad the info..

Thanks & best wishes to you and your husband,

Kathryn

[Terri]

Kathryn, We have a Nutritionist, That has suggested a lot of things to boost the Immune system etc.

[Kathy G]

Kathryn-
My Dad too is on Vidaza and he feels lousy when getting the treatments – no energy and sleeps more. It seems to take a lot out of him. Hope he does better with todays round.

[Kathryn]

Kathy,

My dad is barely eating and sleeping. He still has a sinus infection that is probably affecting his eating, but was on 400mg of Thalidomide and may be having w/drawls…I don’t know.

Did your father have a rough time around the 13th day? They warned him that around that time he would be feeling the roughest.

Thank you for your thoughts.

Kat.

[Kathy G]

Kathryn,
The sinus infection is probably having a big impact on how he feels – for a “normal” person it wipes you out much less with other medical conditions. Yes the Vidaza does make my Dad pretty tired – he’s on day 3 of this round and not much energy. It does seem like he bottoms out on day 13 or so and then just before the next round starts he’s feeling OK. Everytime he’s done the Vidaza some other thing has been going on too – maybe this time it won’t be the case (I’m hoping). The antibiotics that your Dad may be taking can also ruin his appetite as stuff tastes terrible.
Hang in there and take care.

Kathy

[Carrie]

My father started Vidaza in January.
A couple of weeks later, he ended up with a fever and was in the hospital for a week but he made it through. Because of the infection, it took until the beginning of this month for him to get his next treatment. He got his blood counts done almost every other day and almost invariably needed blood or platelets. This treatment seems to be better — no infection and his counts seem stable (except for white cells and neutrophils) so he hasn’t needed any transfusions.
His white counts and neutrophils are a problems though and will delay his next treatment.
Also, he’s very tired and he has no appetite (nothing tastes good).
Dad was diagnosed after treatment for non-hodgkins lymphoma and he has some intestinal discomfort right now so they’re doing a CAT scan today.
We’re praying for a clear CAT scan and better counts!
Oh — and they found that the VRE (vancomycin resistant ento… something…) IS flaring up again so he’s back on antibiotics for it.
Everyone is different but we’re all in the same place.
Good luck to your father,
Carrie

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