[Lamilu]

Hi there. My mom just had her second round of ATG almost a month ago now. The last one she had was Horse not even a year ago and this time they used Ratgam. I guess she was the first patient they have tried this on here in Alberta maybe even Canada not sure. She had alot of bad side effects from the horse although they seemed inexperienced and never gave her all the premeds she had this time around like benadryl, gravol and Tylenol. This time she did much better with the side effects. Just wondering if anyone else has tried the Ratgam and if so how did it go and what results did you see.

I'm not sure where my mom will go from here. She turns 70 in in December and she now weigh's about 100lbs. Not much to her. I'm not sure how much more of this she can take. When she gets her transfusions of hemo and Platelets she lasts about 1-2 weeks and then will get a transfusion when her hemo is at 8 and her platelets at 10. She seems to get at times around 13-14 with her platelets and they will hold out and then eventually come back down.

When she left the hospital after having her Ratgam for some reason they sent her home with her platelets at 5. She ended up back in the hospital with what they said was a tear around one the discs in her back and it was bleeding. So she spent another almost two weeks in hospital for that. They insisted that this had nothing to do with either the Ratgam or her Platelets being at 5 but she was back in the hospital in extreme back pain by ambulance within 3 days of being released. this is why I am looking for more feedback on this. I KNOW this did not just happen for no reason at all. Obviously I want my Mom to get the best care and with AA being so rare it is super hard. i just don't think the doctors know enough about what they are doing. It scares me. They had 5 different dx before this back tear. They just didn't know what was wrong. I'm not convinced they do now. they just said that sometimes this happens when people have lower than normal counts. You can get tears or bruises on the "inside" just the same as bruises on the outside. She is home and with much rest is little by little getting better. I really hope that this tear isn't something she will always have to keep dealing with as it was hard to see her in so much pain. No change in the counts...yet.

Any feedback and/or prayers would be much appreciated!!!

Susanne (Mom has AA 69yrs)