[teo]

Hi Brigitta-A,

Yeah i agreed that we need to concentrate on her further diagnosis now as we still not sure whether she is really MDS or not. So far, the hematologist says she is MDS RA after the 2nd bone marrow report and cytogenetic tests done on early 2012 but again as we discuss here in the forum, seems like there were no conclusive answer yet for the test done so far. I will discuss with my sister about going for all the tests that the doctor never did plus the BMB again this coming few weeks as my sister is busy with kid exams at the moment. She will only free 2 weeks from now.

To answer your queries and giving you some info of my mom history medical records.

We dont have "so good" goverment hospital in my city. They have no facility to check antibodies and etc i guess as they will ask my mom to come for CBC checked a day before and go home as they need to wait for the blood from another city. That's what they told my sister.

We asked the hematologist and he confirmed that my mom has RA but he never gave us any option like you mentioned. EPO + neupogen or similar drugs. The EPO, VIDAZA or Dacogen are proposed when we asked again and again about my mom MDS status and options available. Actually he just propose to use EPO ONLY.

The hematologist never informed my sister that my mom needs an iron overload test after 10 - 20 units of BT, he only told us when we asked, some more he says sarcastic words like if you dont trust me, you can ask another doctor somewhere for advice. Basically he wants us to keep our mouth shut, he knows what is best for his patient. That's quite common in Malaysia private or goverment hospital. Actually my sister and i are a bit worried now that we might piss him off. According to my sister, she can tell the doctor is a bit piss off as he always says he needs strength to answer my sister questions.

We are consulting an oncologist now in another private hospital, basically he agreed with what the hematologist did for my mom.

I remembered my mom has fingers and toes bone deformities on the joint, she has this at least for more than 25 years ago but this few years, it gets bad but she never complains about it. She still do what she used to do, walking to my sister house sometimes and walking around the garden near our house everyday early in the morning, after lunch and dinner. Is it possible that she has thalassemia ?

She has a bone spur on the spine and did the operation maybe 2 or 3 years ago. Before the surgery, the doctor noticed that she has a bit low on the blood cell counts, the doctor prescribe my mom with medication to increase the cell counts after the surgery. We did not followed up her condition after that. I was thinking to go back to the doctor again to find out more. What kind of medicine he prescribe to my mom. If it was different from what she has now, maybe we should try it again to see whether it boost up the cell counts or not.