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Marlene:
Thanks a ton for the initial response. "Pancytopenia", thanks, nice to have a quick way to describe the blood count issue.
He has been receiving two "units" (he says two "bags") in his transfusions. His RBC heading into the transfusions is 8.4. In the last few transfusions, it doesn't seem to be going up at all, and when they re-check the levels three days after the transfusions, he is still at 8.4. So it is not entirely clear that it has gone up at all in the interim. He is not reporting any benefits like he did after his first transfusion. When he first hit the hospital six weeks ago (and with a RBC count in the 6.1 area) the initial transfusion got him up to a 9.9 when he left the hospital. Since then, even with transfusions, it has not seemed to come up out of the 8 range.
My concern is that he may very well be destroying the new blood cells he is receiving. As to your other questions, I don't know that he has been told or knew to ask those kinds of questions. I am now adding them to his list of things to try and get a handle on.
----Aaron
ETA: Not sure how to read the clinical data regarding his blood work on December 3, but here seems like the pertinent stuff:
WBC 2800
HGB 8.4
PLTS 22000
All he was told from the initial BMB was that he had "scarring" and "disease damaged cells" without much context. There was no talk of blast percentages or anything like that. They told him he didn't have cancer per se, but rather something close to it. With regard to his liver and spleen, strangely enough, they are normal and not enlarged, which is further confusing the doctors, who apparently expect them to be enlarged...
It has all been very frustrating.
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