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Old Sun May 6, 2012, 01:36 AM
Neil Cuadra Neil Cuadra is offline
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Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: Los Angeles, California
Posts: 2,553
Hi, Coping1. I hope you are indeed coping.

I'll be blunt. You can't always take a doctor's opinion at face value. Most of us trust our personal physician, but when you have a rare disease like MDS (or might have MDS) a general practitioner or internist isn't likely to have the necessary experience and up-to-date knowledge compared with a specialist who has dealt with many bone marrow failure patients. Since you've already been dealing with an autoimmune blood disorder, perhaps your hematologist does have the necessary experience. If not, you should consult an MDS specialist, even if it's just to get another opinion, but also to see if you can increase your confidence in the recommendations you're getting.

Meanwhile, going to a "BMT specialist" runs the risk that they have a built-in bias toward curing diseases with transplants, when other and less risky treatments should also be considered. The analogy I like to use is asking a painter if your house needs painting; they almost always say yes. Ask all of your doctors to explain the tradeoffs among all of the choices of treatment.

Even if you have to wait for the next bone marrow biopsy to find out what's happening or not happening in your marrow and especially whether it's changing over time, you should keep a close watch on your blood counts and a close watch for symptoms. I have a feeling you already do.

Sometimes when two doctors offer differing advice, it's worth asking them to talk to each other. They may be able to inform each other by comparing notes and discussing the ways they've been viewing your condition.
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