[Sally C]

I thought this information would be useful to those of you with bone marrow diseases.
My husband Don has MDS. Right now he is totally tranfusion independent with normal HGB (although they are huge), normal whites, and platelets 107,000 after about a year on Promacta. Currently he is on no MDS meds (since 7/12).
He was scheduled for a hernia operation at the end of Oct. Our hematologist as usual, covered all bases and ran a PFA-100 test on his platelets to test their clotting time. While the test isn't perfect it did come back abnormal. The morning before his surgery her office called to inform us they had already canceled his surgery.
From what I understand, MDS can cause dysfunctional platelets - I don't know about PNH or AA.
I wanted to give a heads up for anyone who is contemplating surgery to have this test done. We were thinking since his platelets were over 100,000 there would be no problem. Thankfully she ran the test before he went under the knife.
She is going to test him with a shot of Vasopressin which can be a temporary fix for the dysfunction. The knowledge that it would work could be crucial if he ever needed emergency surgery. Getting this shot would be much quicker than finding platelets and his having to take the pre-meds 30 minutes before the transfusion.
God Bless and Happy New Year to all!
Sally