[MNladyslipper]

Ruth,
I saw that you said doctors usually like to put off transplants as long as possible. We have been told the opposite by our doctors. My husband has and IPSS score of 2, but one doctor said he is high risk because of the amount of chromosome damage. He has 11 out of 20 damaged with marks on three more. His wbc and rbc are affected. He was diagnosed after going to be a blood donor. They wouldn't take him because his hemoglobin was so low. After testing, he was diagnosed with MDS RAEB 1. His blast are between 5 & 10%. He was dagnosed the end of January and has had three transfusions. He is on Revlimid and it does allow him to go longer between transfusions. They have not found a MUD and his siblings did not match. They are looking at cord transplant before the end of the year. The doctors disagree a little on the urgency. One hospital says the sooner the better for high risk patients, the other says to give the Revlimid a chance, but that we are headed for transplant.

He will be having surgery for diverticulitis this Friday as a preventative measure, so it doesn't flare up during transplant. We are very worried. His wbc is currently at 1.3 and his neutrophils are 0.18!!