Robin Robert's illness: MDS

Although I've been employed in health care for many years, I wasn't familiar with the illness Robin Roberts, anchorwoman of Good Morning America, is now facing.

MDS, or myelodysplastic syndrome, is actually a syndrome, or collection of symptoms. It can affect a woman who has received chemotherapy for breast cancer (Roberts is a breast cancer survivor.) This syndrome tends to occur five to seven years after chemotherapy for breast cancer.

Here is website that discusses MDS:

"Myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) are a group of diseases that affect the bone marrow and blood. Some types of MDS are mild and easily managed, while other types are severe and life-threatening. Mild MDS can grow more severe over time. It can also develop into a fast-growing, severe leukemia called acute myelogenous leukemia."

http://marrow.org/Patient/Disease_and_Treatment/About_Your_Disease/MDS/Myelodysplastic_Syndromes_%28MDS%29.aspx

She left GMA a day before her scheduled departure. She was going to MS to visit her ailing mother. Fortunately she arrived in MS in time to see her mother and say their goodbyes. Robin's mother passed away shortly after her arrival.

Now with all the other procedures she has to go through with the bone marrow transplant, she now has to bury her mother. That is a lot for someone to handle, but Robin is a very strong person and I suspect that she will come through this, just as she did in her fight against cancer.