[Hopeful]

Hi Sarah,

SAA is a very serious, life-threatening disease. It seems to strike the young, and your story of being very physically active one moment to being diagnosed with this illness is not atypical.

It is very important to be diagnosed and treated by a doctor that has expertise in this disease, as it is rare.

SAA is a diagnosis of exclusion meaning that your doctor should have run you through a bunch of other tests, including a bone marrow biopsy, to rule out a number of other conditions that can mimic the symptoms of this disease.

The gold standard of treatment for someone with SAA, without a matched sibling donor, is ATG plus Cyclosporine. Cyclosporine alone is not a typical treatment except in the elderly or in third-world countries where ATG is not available. It can work, but the success rate is not as high as when it is combined with ATG. It will take months before you will know whether it is working.

What are your blood counts (HGB, ANC, platelets) and do you have a copy of your BMB report? What is your age? Do you have the option of going to England to see a specialist, as there are a number of people on this forum that are being treated at Kings.

If this is truly SAA, time is of the essence!