[marmab]

As Greg said, great conversation here! I know I've said it several times, but I feel so fortunate to have found you folks -- your collected wisdom and knowledge is impressive (and your willingness to share it). And although I have come to appreciate just how weirdly individual this disease(s) is/are, there is ALWAYS useful information to glean.

So...that said, I am a bit confused about where to go in the future. Watch and wait at the moment, yes. But if I am headed in the direction of IST, and it seems that I might be (whether my Dx is ultimately hypoplastic MDS or AA), should I consider the "traditional" mix of ATG first, then CsA? Or just one of them? And should I completely forget about doing Epogen or transfusions (unless absolutely needed). The statistics, albeit with the caveats you mention, seem to show that ATG/CsA together STILL yields the best response rate. I'm also a bit confused about proceeding to IST sooner rather than later. My counts are not wicked low, but someone (Hopeful or Lisa? I don't remember at the moment) implied that there is no advantage to waiting; that it's better to treat before counts bottom out.

What to do, what to do....? Blood test tomorrow, anyway. Maybe that will tell me something.

Thanks very much, again, for keeping this conversation going.

marmab