[Ray V]

Well my first BM done locally and by Quest showed 9% blast count. My next one done at Dana Farber showed 12% and my latest done at Dartmouth Hitchcock showed a preliminary of less than 5%. I am on Linus Pauling's absurdly high vitamin regimen and taking some really potent Chinese herbs from a formula a Grandmaster in China e-mailed me (well, at least they will not harm me till I decide on other treatment.) I see the Docs today and am wondering what they will say now. From the first two I wound up with three different recommended treatments. I expect to end up with an additional two new recommendations. The frustrating thing is Western medicine cannot get a diagnoses. At least I know enough about the methodology of modern medicine to insist on confirming tests before getting treatment. The good news is that I remain asymptomatic.

Ray

Saw the Docs at Dana Farber and by blood count was up. WBC has gone from 2.3 to 3.4 with rises in hemoglobin and hematocrit, but the RBC remains the same. Their conclusion is that I have an auto-imune abnormality that periodically attacks my bone marrow (I had aplastic anemia in 1971 but recovered too rapidly for it to have been from the medications). The guys at DF told em that there have been cases where they see a relationship between MDS and arthritis such that when meds help the one the patient shows and improvement in the other. The current plan is for monthly blood tests and semi-annual bone marrow tests. Meanwhile I am looking for a way to check my auto-imune system. Given that I have been a type 1 diabetic since 1967, there is an added reason to believe there are fundamental auto-imune issues lurking in the background.

Ray