His news is positive. Depending on what the rest of the blood counts are showing, you might want to ask the oncologist about taking additional medications to enhance blood counts to allow him to stay on 600mg.
The combination of CML and Gleevec can make red blood cell sizes vary more than usual and cause RDW to be high. RDW can show anemia, and there are vitamin deficiencies that can be indicated. Folic acid supplements are important for anyone with CML, and sometimes B6 or iron (but be sure to ask the Doc about taking iron). But sometimes RDW shows only that you have a disease (thanks RDW, but we already knew that). Given all that Randy has been through, his body is trying to respond to all the changes (disease plus medication changes), and things are bound to be out of whack. See this website for RDW and anemia info: http://www.fpnotebook.com/HEM85.htm The RDW issue is similar to my experience. My RDW climbed slowly and steadily for 3 months until it reached 21.9, then it fell back -- no known reason. My onc cared more about other anemia indicators, and never worried about RDW. She said that RDW would straighten out over time, which seems to be what is now happening for me. --Trey --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ [CMLHope] A support group of http://cmlhope.com ------------------------------------------------- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "CMLHope" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/CMLHope -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
