[PaulS]

Hi Tracey - Can you ask your transplant doctor or hematologist these questions? Have you asked if he/she uses email - my doctors encourage me to email them and are generally pretty responsive depending on the urgency of the question - but they always get back to me. Does your doctor work with a physicians's assistant (PA) or nurse practitioner (NP) - my doctors also work with a PA whom I am also able to email or call and are generally very knowledgeable or will ask the Dr. if they don't know the answer - but they also will respond very promptly if the doctor doesn't or can't. Are you're having trouble communicating with your doctor? - I suggest you call and speak with him/her or find out the best way to communicate. Ideally you should be able to contact them or at least their PA's directly and easily -

Are your hgb and platelets normal? When was your last BMB? I had a BMB very close to the transplant date - the results of the BMB was considered by the transplant doctor in deciding on the pre- transplant conditioning. They also did the labs and other tests - They would not rely on a BMB from another hospital.

Do you have an appointment scheduled to see the transplant doctor? Before the transplant I was going in once a week for tests and to see the transplant doctor - he'd answer any questions I had and we'd discuss the implications of the recent tests on the transplant protocol - The transplant doctor decided what pre-transplant conditioning he was going to use based on all my tests, especially cardiac and BMB. Seems like you should have an appointment with the transplant doctor pretty soon. They also had a transplant coordinator who was a nurse available to answer questions - or at least facilitate communications.

Sorry I can't answer your questions about the meaning of the test results - but i think you really need to get the answers from the transplant doctor - the question is really what do they mean in regards to the transplant - does it change anything as far as conditioning or transplant protocols.

Good luck
p.