Maxine Fearing

Mom was diagnosed with myelodysplastic syndrom (MDS) about three years ago.  MDS is a group of disorders caused when something disrupts the production of blood cells.  Sometimes there is a reason for developing this and other times there is no known cause.  This is the case for mom.  This disorder sat dormant until about 11 months ago.  Mom had a major gall bladder attack.  They were going to remove her gall bladder at that time, but they noticed that some of her blood test numbers were off.  They started looking into things and decided that there must be internal bleeding somewhere so we went to find it.  She has had two endoscopies, two colonoscopys and a pill cam study that all came back negative.  In the meantime, we were treating her symptoms with blood transfusions.  In August, mom had another major gall bladder attack and they decided to remove it.  Since then we have been treating the MDS with blood transfusions.  Over time, mom has needed more and more blood transfusions which has caused the iron to build up in her blood which deposits in the organs and causes them not to work as well as they should.  We had started a shot called Aranesp which is a bone marrow stimulant.  It can treat the anemia caused my MDS to try to get her to produce her own blood.  This shot can take up to 6 moths to start working.  It is given weekly.  Mom started that shot at the end of December.  She continued with blood transfusions.  During the last 10 months, there have been many doctor's appointments, blood draws, emergency room visits and hospital stays as well as blood transfusions almost weekly.  On January  15, mom was again in the ER with shortness of breath and general fatigue...all symptoms of the MDS.  She got another blood transfusion.  When we went in to meet with the doctor on Tuesday, we found out that mom had a MILD heart attack.  The cardiologist says that we can't go in and try to fix the heart stuff because she will have to go on blood thinners which will cause her to be more anemic and need blood transfusions.  The oncologist says we can't keep treating the MDS with blood transfusions because it will cause her to have another heart attack.  Her body is not tolerating the blood transfusions anymore.  There is a lot of fluid building up around the heart and lungs which is making it hard for mom to breath.  SOOO, at this point we don't really have much of a choice.  If we continue to treat either condition it will cause the other to kick in and mom could die sooner.  As of right now, mom has moved to the Annandale Care Center room B25 with hospice services on board.    The focus for treatment is comfort care.  Mom can get up and move around, even leave if she wants with anyone (as long as they know so she has oxygen).  Please go to visit and show mom all the support you can!  Thank you from her kids Hope, Cindy, Diane and Keith.