Where I live there is no support for SCTs or other type of marrow transplants, so the choice was limited to transfusions on a sliding scale for Hgb together with oral iron chelation. Over the last 4 years I've had nearly 195 PRBC units transfused and on-off Exjade to keep serum ferritin under 1000ug/L .
I have lab tests every three weeks and allow an extra day for blood bank to locate compatible units. Usually I get two infused over a four hour period with the usual pre-meds of Tylonel, Benadryl, and IV hyrdocortisone. Every so often I'll get three units when I'm borderline 70 Hgb. So far it works for me and I'm thankful for the kind folks who donate blood. Btw I do keep track of the volume of each unit as well as date of expiration because there is quite a range.
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Ric: Low-risk MDS (blasts <4%); 4 cycles Revlimid no positive response; PRBC transfusion dependent; so far, 392'units' over 8 3/4 years; BMB #4 (15/04/01) shows evolution to AML (blasts 20-30%
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47,XY,del(5) (q22q35),+21[24][cp24]/46,XY(1).