Myelodysplastic Syndrome (MDS): Did you have stem cell transplant?
I am a caregiver for my husband who has recently been diagnosed with MDS. He has MM which he was treated for with a stem cell transplant using his own cells in January of 2018. He did 18 months of Revlimid post transplant as maintenance. His counts always were low once he started treatment and he had three incidences of pneumonia in those 18 months. The last time was September 2019 his neutrophils dropped to 300 and his hemoglobin (9.3) and platelets (83) also dropped. None of his counts recovered very quickly so they did another bone marrow biopsy and discovered the MDS. His MM is in remission but they discovered MDS. With the new diagnosis of MDS he no longer takes revlimid.
My question is, are their other people on connect who have gotten MDS from treatment or even have MDS? How long have you had MDS and are they monitoring it or have you had a bone marrow transplant with donor cells? And how was the transplant? We have lots of questions. So any answers would be helpful.
Interested in more discussions like this? Go to the Bone Marrow Transplant (BMT) & CAR-T Cell Therapy Support Group.
Welcome to Connect, @consuelo91 I’m so sorry to hear that your mom has MDS, a type of blood cancer. When the disease is very advanced it can be difficult to treat. Especially in older patients like your mom at 91.
The medications to help treat this would be chemotherapy, which can be quite harsh. As people age, our bodies aren’t able to tolerate the medications as well as when we are younger. This treatment could leave her very fatigued and weak. So your mom’s doctors may be hesitant to use these drugs for her. Opting, instead, to keep her comfortable, allowing her to have a better quality of life at this point in time.
Have her doctors suggested any treatment?