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Vikas,
I'm sorry that your father has MDS, but I can honestly say that things could be a lot worse. Even though MDS is a serious condition, his MDS is the lower risk variety. His counts are stable, and that's very important. His blasts haven't increased, and 3% or 4% can be considered normal. His hemoglobin is low but not extremely low so if it doesn't drop much further you may be able to continue as you are now, with an occasional transfusion. Even though his diagnosis was stressful for the whole family, these are reasons to be optimistic.
The doctors are unlikely to consider aggressive treatments that could do more harm than good. The goal isn't to cure the MDS but to help your father maintain his life as it is now.
General pain can have so many causes that it's hard to judge its connection to his MDS. MDS itself doesn't hurt, although some pain can result from low blood counts. It's common for any 71-year-old, with or without MDS, to complain of pain around the joints, so you can certainly ask a doctor how best to identify the cause or treat it. If somebody other than his MDS doctor treats the pain in his shoulder and knee, be sure to let his MDS doctor know about it.
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