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Waiting is the hardest part...
Hi Chandra4intx,
I would question how many AA patients your doctor has treated if he is suggesting going to transplant after 3 months. Early responses may occur at 3 months but many take 6-9 months and sometimes longer. Also, a "response" at 3 months could just mean an uptick in some of your blood lines or transfusion independence. The responses usually aren't complete so early on.
At 40, you are young, but not in the AA world. So your risks of death or serious GVHD complications from a transplant are higher. I had two sibling matches at diagnosis, and my doctors consider a transplant as a last resort.
You are on a lot of drugs right now. Question your doctor as to whether they are all necessary. Sometimes they forget to take you off! Your dose of cyclosporine is not excessive. So, I agree with the others that you will feel significantly better when off prednisone and some of the other drugs. As a point of reference, I was only on cyclosporine and prednisone after ATG.
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55 yo female, dx 9/08, AA/hypo-MDS, subclinical PNH, ATG/CsA 12/08, partial response. small trisomy 6 clone, low-dose cyclosporine dependent
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