Hello Everyone
First let me say that this site is truely a blessing. I have been reading the posts ever since my wife Betty was dx with secondary MDS back in June. I admire the courage that all of you have in coping with this disease, and my heart breaks when I read of your disappointments and the loss of your loved ones.
With recurrent ALL and MDS our only hope of long term survival (years versus months) has been to get the ALL into remission and to proceed with a cord blood transplant. She had a BMB on Sep 1 and when we got the results on Sep 7 it showed that there was more leukemia present than before her last round of chemo. But now her MDS has apparently advanced to AML.
She has been very resistent to most chemo, and on the last infusion, she was only able to tolerate 36 hours of a 72 hour protocol of Ara-C. It is probable that any chemo to knock the AML would likely cause more damage to her already damaged heart.
So her doctor is basically recommending comfort measures (pain control and periodic transfusions. Needless to say, this has been devastating – you have all been there.
Today I heard that there have been some promising results for AML that has been resistant to other forms of chemo if patients are transfused with natural killer cells from a related donor. does anyone know of this procedure? Is it available to patients that simultaneously have ALL? and does the trisomy 8 problem have any complications.
We are hoping to hear back from the University of Minnesota about our chances. Any help would be appreciated.
For mor information on our situation, you can check Betty’s web page at http://www.caringbridge/visit/bettybush
God Bless you all
Dusty
.
