Vidaza Treatment - the good news
Posted: 13 May 2012 16:59
I am a 78 year-old retired, widower with no history of illness, non-smoker, low blood pressure, low cholesterol, low PSA, no medication, healthy life-style etc.
In March 2011 I woke up one morning with a swollen, sore, inflamed leg which I suspected to be a DVT and went to my local hospital A&E who took a blood sample and injected Fragmin. An ultra –sound scan one week later showed that it was not a DVT but they told me to mention to my GP that my blood test showed some abnormalities.
I had further blood tests and in July 2011 I was referred to a consultant haematologist who took a bone marrow sample . Three weeks later the results showed that I was suffering from MDS, and my consultant took a further sample to confirm the extent of the damage. In August he confirmed my MDS at level 2.0 on the IPSS Score Table. He recommended that I should undergo treatment with Vidaza. At that point my Hb was 111, white cells 2.0, neutrophils 0.5, platelets 84. My bone marrow contained 5-10% blasts and I had abnormalities of chromosomes 5 and 7.
I then started treatment with Vidaza on Monday 5th September. Initially the protocol was for treatment on Monday to Friday in week 1 followed by the next Monday/Tuesday to complete the 7 day course. This was followed by blood tests on the next three Mondays before starting the 2nd course of treatment on the sixth Monday. However the 2nd and 3rd courses were each delayed by one week as my platelet levels had not recovered sufficiently. This reverted to the normal 5-week cycle in January.
At the end of January the protocol was changed to a 4-week cycle in future. In March after the completion of the 6th cycle of treatment with Vidaza another bone marrow sample was taken. This showed very encouraging results with improvements in all critical indicators, the repair? of one of the damaged chromosomes, the reduction of blasts to 5% and the change in my IPSS score to 1.5. I have since completed the 7th and 8th cycles and I no longer need to have the between-treatments blood tests.
I have never needed blood or platelet transfusions and I have had minimal side-effects, the worst being soreness at the site of the injections. I have never at any time felt ill or even tired and it was therefore frustrating to discover that I had a potentially terminal illness. On the positive side it is very clear that Vidaza is working and the team at my clinic is absolutely first class. I look forward to continuing the treatment and further improvement in my prognosis.
I can strongly recommend the treatment and as I said above it is clearly working for me. My consultant is very enthusiastic and believes that my situation will improve even further by continuing with the treatment.
Best wishes and good luck to everybody
In March 2011 I woke up one morning with a swollen, sore, inflamed leg which I suspected to be a DVT and went to my local hospital A&E who took a blood sample and injected Fragmin. An ultra –sound scan one week later showed that it was not a DVT but they told me to mention to my GP that my blood test showed some abnormalities.
I had further blood tests and in July 2011 I was referred to a consultant haematologist who took a bone marrow sample . Three weeks later the results showed that I was suffering from MDS, and my consultant took a further sample to confirm the extent of the damage. In August he confirmed my MDS at level 2.0 on the IPSS Score Table. He recommended that I should undergo treatment with Vidaza. At that point my Hb was 111, white cells 2.0, neutrophils 0.5, platelets 84. My bone marrow contained 5-10% blasts and I had abnormalities of chromosomes 5 and 7.
I then started treatment with Vidaza on Monday 5th September. Initially the protocol was for treatment on Monday to Friday in week 1 followed by the next Monday/Tuesday to complete the 7 day course. This was followed by blood tests on the next three Mondays before starting the 2nd course of treatment on the sixth Monday. However the 2nd and 3rd courses were each delayed by one week as my platelet levels had not recovered sufficiently. This reverted to the normal 5-week cycle in January.
At the end of January the protocol was changed to a 4-week cycle in future. In March after the completion of the 6th cycle of treatment with Vidaza another bone marrow sample was taken. This showed very encouraging results with improvements in all critical indicators, the repair? of one of the damaged chromosomes, the reduction of blasts to 5% and the change in my IPSS score to 1.5. I have since completed the 7th and 8th cycles and I no longer need to have the between-treatments blood tests.
I have never needed blood or platelet transfusions and I have had minimal side-effects, the worst being soreness at the site of the injections. I have never at any time felt ill or even tired and it was therefore frustrating to discover that I had a potentially terminal illness. On the positive side it is very clear that Vidaza is working and the team at my clinic is absolutely first class. I look forward to continuing the treatment and further improvement in my prognosis.
I can strongly recommend the treatment and as I said above it is clearly working for me. My consultant is very enthusiastic and believes that my situation will improve even further by continuing with the treatment.
Best wishes and good luck to everybody