[Sally C]

Hey Birgitta,
I remembered that you had mentioned you have dysfunctional platelets.
Something you may want to consider if it's available where you are is to get the shot that Don is going to get - Vasopressin. The way it was explained to us is that, if the shot does what we want with the platelets, it would make Don's platelets purge their insides into the blood stream which is what makes the blood clot. It is a short term fix as once those platelets have purged then you have to wait for a new bunch of platelets - they can only be purged once. But the value of knowing it would work on your platelets is what I mentioned in my first post - if Don needed emergency surgery, what platelets he has would be made to function with just a shot without having to wait to find platelets, administer pre-meds, and infuse them. In a critical situation the time saved by just getting a shot could possibly mean the difference between life and death.
The only concern with the shot is they have to closely monitor blood pressure as all the purged material is pushed into the blood stream and can run up the blood pressure.
We are meeting with his cardiologist on 2/4 and with his OK, Don will get the injection to see if it works on him. Will let you know.
Take care!
Sally