Chirley,
Becareful with taking alcoholic beverages if you have MDS. I heard from several people that it can bring your blood counts down and it happened to myself also.
About the Claritin (medication for allergies) it works because of the antihistamines in it. I don't know the details.
Also, I had to stop the Neupogen because it brought my platelet count way down. They added the Neupogen to the Aranesp to see if I could have more time between transfusions but it did not work. Now I get transfused every six weeks (2 units).
I hope everything works out well for you and welcome to this wonderful site.
Kitty