[josey63]

Hi Ruth,

Thank you for the information about the Aplastic Anemia & MDS Foundation, I requested information from them today and am looking forward to reading it. I realized after posting yesterday that I sounded like a negative, whinny, self pitying person. I am not really that way, have just had a bad week with my family. I have talked via email with several people who have had stem cell transplants and are doing real well, so I know the statistics especially on older people with mini-transplants are still being formed. When I had the Aplastic Anemia they treated me with mega doses of prednisone and testosterone and weekly transfusions of whole blood right out of the person in the next room. The mega doses of steroids were suppose to shock my system into producing blood again. After 3 years of that my counts except for my platlets were in the low normal range and that was considered as good as it was going to ever get. I had to learn to live with a low platlet count and be careful with what I did. Up until all my counts started dropping and I was diagnosed with MDS I had only needed platlet transfusions when I had a surgery. I am sure the information I am going to get will help me understand what MDS is all about. Thanks agian for the information, and I hope everyone in this forum will forgive me for being so negative in my last post. Joanne