Results from Round 2 of Vidaza

Well, we were shocked how much better the second round of Vidaza went.  The nausea and fatigue were not as bad.  Todd still experienced some stomach upset, headaches, and fatigue, but it was more manageable.  Why?  What was the difference?  We are not sure.  Todd's nurse said there could have been more "nerves" with the first round than the second, making symptoms worse.  Or, he could have simply adjusted better to the treatments, or there was a slight chance he had a stomach virus during the first round.  I guess we will never know.  We are just pleased with the lessened severity of his symptoms with round two.

The blood work results post-round two show his counts have come up from the very low counts the previous Monday, June 16.  Here is a comparison of his CBC blood counts from the past few weeks to help give you perspective:

Date:                   June 16                June 23                   June 30                July 7
                          Day 1;R2               Day 6;R2              1wk post R2       2 wks post R2

Whites                 1.2                    n/avail.                             3.0                    3.2
Reds                    4.19                   n/avail.                            4.14                  4.21
Hemoglobin        11.2                   n/avail.                           11.1                   11.4
ANCs                      .4                   n/avail.                             1.7                    1.8
Platelets                75                     n/avail.                            29                     35

As you can see in this chart, his platelets did not get as big of a boost this round as in the first round which rebounded to 136 at one point and then started dropping from there.  Once again, all these counts are below the normal range. 

During his check-up this past Monday, July 7, 2014, his local oncologist expressed his desire for us to talk to his bone marrow transplant doctor at the Cleveland Clinic so we can discuss and re-evaluate where we stand.  Cleveland called us the same day and set an appointment for tomorrow, Wednesday, July 9, 2014 in the late afternoon. 

Some of the issues to be discussed will include: the time table for scheduling the transplant, how many more rounds (just round 3 or a round 4 too) of Vidaza will be done before transplanting, scheduling another biopsy to check on the blast count, etc.

I will post the outcome and thinking from this upcoming visit by the end of the week.  Meanwhile, round three of Vidaza is already scheduled to begin next week starting Monday, July 14, 2014.