[Marlene]

Laura,

My philosophy is that there many things we can do ourselves when it comes to healing. You have to decide what those things are for yourself. Over time, based on personal experience, you learn what those things are. My personal opinion is that a B12 shot is low risk. I would be inclined to do the shot and continue with the oral supplementation since the shot is probably the cyano form of B12. But that's us. We've been combining alternative/complementary medicine for years now and are pretty comfortable with it.

We would also adjust John's desferal and exjade schedules depending on how he was feeling. Our doc was fine with that. Same with procrit. But that's us. But again, there is very little risk in us doing this with these meds. Aspects of your healing can and should be self directed at times.

Some of the supplements John took when his platelets were low would not be considered OK by most docs but they were instrumental in his healing and they did not cause any adverse reactions or increase bleeding.

One of our strategies for shots to minimize bruising/pain was use an ice pack on the area for a few minutes before giving the it. Then, if he bruised badly, hot, moist heat would help clear it. The Sub-Q desferal in his tummy gave some huge bruises.

John did not bleed to death when fell and broke wrist at 4K platelets or when he ruptured his quad tendon 30K platelets. I cannot imagine a shot being more troublesome than the above.