79 year old male with MDS.

ron79mds
What are your blood numbers? I expect the mentors will be posting the various postings on MDS. If you go in the subject box above and put questions about MDS, you will have many posts on many subjects. If you have time take a look. I do know mentors will post specific threads. Since you have been a patient at Mayo Clinic, you have come to the right place. I am wondering if these questions you ask need to be brought to your oncologist again? If you had a bone marrow biopsy, I would expect you have also seen a hematologist? Left with questions I know is scary. Be good to yourself and see what will be offered here as to information and gets some sleep tonight.

Don't be afraid of the diagnosis . Pray instead .
Pray for God to guide your doctors in their management of your illness .
My husband was diagnosed at age 80 . He is on Vidaza chemo and doing well . His blood counts are at a steady level . He will be 83 next February 🙂
I feed him a healthy diet for good blood cells to form .
He is also good at drinking his water each day .
The week of chemo can be tiring . The week after is also tiring but can see slight improvement in his stamina .
He can drive on his 3rd week and then he is feeling great on his 4th week .
Then the chemo cycle starts all over again .
Put all these in God's hands . Worry less and pray more .

my treatments are a once a day pill called promacta to increase red blood cell production and to increase platelets. my bone marrow wasnt doing enough

I have been diagnosed with MDS and have seen a hematologist at the Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota a couple of years and now have telemedicine follow ups. I have been on Inqovi for two and a half years. I have been doing okay but my platelets have dropped to 15 as my oncologist said today.

@docheat72
I suppose they wang to see if the marrow will restart with promacta. I would expect this drug has had some success. I hope it works with you. But thank God you are being seen. So many of us have different treatments as nothing just works. Done. Seldom are we done. It is a journey and by far a great attitude is the biggest help of all.

@bhbooze
I was a platelet donor for 25 years, so i knew my blood numbers. When they did not rise after my breast cancer treatment and chemo, I knew something was wrong. I requested to see a hematologist. MDS was diagnosed. Blood is the life source of the body. Our marrows are amazing at what they do. Yet troubles can happen and the why is not easy to figure out.

I have only had to receive platelets twice since I was diagnosed in 2020. I knew something was wrong when on vacation in 2018 as I would begin sweating profusely for no reason. When I was scheduled for back surgery that year is when they found my blood counts were low. Sent me to an oncologist and it was wait and see until they diagnosed me. I don’t feel bad or nothing hurts but I have zero energy and can’t do much of anything without having to sit down and rest. It’s just so frustrating as I’ve always been so active. I know my age has some too do with it as I’m 80 years young.
I will pray for you and wish you the best.

@katgob Thank you for your reply. I had blood work done yesterday and now I have my results. My WBC is 6.6. My RBC is 3.84. My hemoglobin has gone up to 11.1 and my hematocrit is 35.4. These numbers represent a slight increase from my last lab work, which was done at the beginning of November.