Thank you Frances for restarting updates of my current hospital stay. I thought I would back up a bit and expand on what is happening and why.
This current issue with my blood was noted in January when the results of routine blood tests raised some concerns with Dr. Martin. He ordered a bone marrow biopsy for the following day. This confirmed his diagnose of treatment related Myelodysplastic Syndrome (MDS). In my simple understanding, this means that the prior chemotherapy I had has compromised my ability to produce good blood cells. My initial blood chemistry classified me as intermediate risk. The plan is to produce healthy cells with the help of chemo drugs to kill the MDS cells and then to have an Allogeneic Stem Cell Transplantation. My siblings have started the process to see if they could be a good match for a transplant. I was to start a 5 day a month infusion of Decitabine at the local infusion center; however my most recent blood tests showed Leukemia blasts in the smear, so Dr. Martin wanted another bone marrow biopsy to see the extent of the blasts. Well, they were high enough to step up the treatment plan. So, I am here in the hospital to do 10 days straight of Decitabine infusions. I have had 5 infusions so far and the side effects have been mild. I did have a raging headache the first 2 days, but a change in my anti-nausea medicine seems to have taken care of that. The blasts in my blood samples are decreasing as they should. I did need 2 units of blood on Tuesday as my HCT fell below 27. This increased the HCT measure to above 33 where it remains.