Questions about bone marrow testing?

[Guest guest]

Hi, folks thanks again for all the wonderfull information. I was

speaking to beths oncologist this am. on the phone and after a little

over a week on hydroxurea her white counts have dropped from 85,000

down to 35,000. She had to stop taking allopurinal due to a rash.

Still we see this as very positive and he does not think the

allopurinal is needed now that her counts are where they are. The one

thing that concearned me is that he stated he did not think she would

be needing another bone marrow biopsy even in the distant future

stating he would do all the testing by blood alone. How will we know

if we reach the magic 3 log reduction then? Does this sound right or

after a period of time should we push for another bone marrow biopsy

even though Beth dreads it?

Thanks,

Ray