Good afternoon all,
It’s been a while since I posted with regards to my mom’s MDS diagnosis in July 2019. Happy to say she is here, still receiving monthly blood transfusions, (now it’s bi-weekly due to the US blood shortage; they are only giving her one unit provided she is above 7.0 upon discharge). She receives at-home blood draws/weekly cbc’s. In December 2021, her cbc peripheral blood smear showed blasts (2.0 was the reference range) and myelocytes. In the weeks that followed, her peripheral smears did NOT show any blasts myelocytes etc. Last week however, the blasts show up again on the peripheral smear, 2.0 with myelocytes 4.0. A BMB is not possible due to her bed-ridden condition, she has extreme pain in her extremities and is completely non-ambulatory. Can anyone give me insight into the appearance of blasts on the peripheral smear? Is any sign of blasts an indication of disease progression or as her oncologist said, he looks for consistency and trends so he’s not ready to commit to re-staging her MDS. FYI her platelets rebounded from 25,000 to 101,000 holding steady for over a year without medication!