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Judith
Am shocked at hearing that you are not a candidate for anything because you have a fungus. When your whites are low, here comes the fungus. I know so many patients with a fungus going into a BMT.

How about "BITCHIE" for a sassy name?? You tell that cancer where you’re comin’ from, girl!!

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hi
my wife developed a cough late in her treatment. Her doc believed it was caused by leukemia cells spilling into her peripheral blood from the marrow and getting into her lungs. does his cbc tests show blasts in his peripheral blood? when you say "chemo", do you mean vidaza which really isn’t chemo? I would have liked to see him get his 4th cycle of vidaza. Is megastrol the marijuana drug used to increase appetite?

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sharon
the younger the patient is with this dreaded disease, the better the chance of cure. has he had a bone marrow biopsy(bmb)? that’s the only way to tell about the blasts, or amount of defective cells in the marrow. these cells grow but doe off before reaching maturity thus squeezing off the function of good cells. a bmt is the only cure. do you have other children that can be tested for compatibility? I understand what you are going through and your fears, especially with a child. get back to us & I pray everything turns out well.

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cheryl
you hit the nail right on the head with that prophecy. at your young age, any thoughts about a transplant?

pam
why revlimid? what type mds does your mom have? does she have a caregiver near her? if she has a picc & it’s functional, why go to a port (understanding that a port is better to have but the picc is already in)?

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pam
great regimen for you. I’m confident it will drop those evil blasts to assure you’ll get through your transplant ok. all the luck in the world to you!! FIGHT< FIGHT< FIGHT!!!

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cathy
really happy for your outcome.

Julie
tell your husband to keep fighting & never give up. a lot of people now that I keep hearing about secondary cancer. they told me it was relatively rare but I keep hearing about so many cases.

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sure beats having to contend with all that spam crap!!

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Kristi
Good for you!! You should be very proud about what you did. You can save someone’s life. I am impressed.

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Hi, Simon
sorry about your rough time. I guess after rnd 6, they’ll a bmb to see what’s doing. cords are so sensitive and difficult to take. You’re so close to Hopkins and they’re well known for haplo transplants. a haplo transplant is a stem cell half match. that makes a son or daughter (usually that hasn’t had a child) a match. now your transplanting mature adult cells rather than infantile cells as in cords. the Univ of Minn does this also but uses your match’s natural killer cells (NKC) prior to infusing the stem cells. The theory is that the NKC will seek out & kill the leukemic cells, then following a short period, the stem cells are infused.

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kristi
i’m not in this age group but I know that younger people can withstand a much more aggressive chemo treatment if blasts are involved. Paul needs an analysis of his marrow to see what’s happening there.

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daddy
this is an evil, evil disease. Sorry about your dad. find strength in the fact that he is at peace now.

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Hi, Judith
I’m a little confused why they want to start induction chemo AFTER starting you on vidaza. why not keep you on vidaza for another 3 rounds, then do a bmb to see if blasts are continuing to come down. OR why didn’t they 1st start you on induction chemo???? But they’re the docs, I’m not! great about disability.

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Hey, paul
your counts are low but not ridiculously so you’re doing the right thing by seeing a hematologist and going to the next step. you’re very young so whatever the outcome, you’ve got that on your side. sounds like the hematologist will want a bone marrow biopsy to see what’s happening where the cells are made. the MD Anderson Center at the Univ. Texas in Houston is a good place to get a 2nd opinion. don’t start thinking BMT until you done with the 2nd opinion. good luck buddy.

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Lynn
good for you!! Everyone is different as it has been stated over & over again. Glad to hear something is working for patients with this evil disease.

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simon
hi, long time since we last communicated. hope all is going well for you. are you going to opt for another cord? have you tried the donor registry again? have you also checked on what they’re doing at Johns Hopkins re haplos? good luck to you.

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