Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Dana Farber visit update

The visits I had today were to confirm diagnosis and determine choices/options.

The specialist states that my MDS will likely turn into acute leukemia within 2 years.

I can be given low level chemo drugs like Vidaxa to help keep my current counts relatively stable but it is a short term solution at best. Eventually the disease will overcome the benefits of the chemo then a match is a must. Also, the drugs dont work for everyone so who knows.

We are still determining whether to take the drug route. It will depend on how long it takes to find a match.

If a match is found soon, there isn't much of a need to do the Vidaxa.

Once a match is determined, I will be in the hospital for about 40 days between the chemo to kill all bone marrow, do the transplant, and recovery.

I go home after that but am effectively in isolation for a year because the immune system needs to rebuild.

Hopefully my work will allow me to work from home during this period.

Long day today.

1 comment:

  1. it's a long road but one you can travel; I'll be there for you and your children will be, too. Hopefully other family members will be, also. So, it's a dark road that you'll have people guiding you along and into much sunnier road of remission if not a total cure. :)

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