[Marlene]

There are some who have been successful with just natural treatments. I don't recall anyone on this forum who has done this though. Most combine allopathic with natural/holistic approaches. And with natural approaches, they vary quite a bit. Also, they estimate about 20% go into remission without any intervention. Unfortunately, there is no way to predict outcomes.

With is this disease, it take a while to see a positive response no matter what path you take. Be sure to keep track of CBC's. You want to watch for trends in all three lines....Red, white and platelets. If they continue to trend down or if time between transfusions lengthens, then you may want to reconsider your approach.

It's important that they baseline her iron, B12, folate, copper, Vit D, B6 and zinc levels. A low-normal B12 needs to be treated. So if they have not checked this, find out what her levels are. And if she's supplementing with B12 now, you will most likely get a falsely elevated result unless you stop about one week before testing. To further assess B12, they should run a MMA and homocysteine level. At 80, it's very possible that her B12 is low and with the coumadin, she could have had some bleeding contributing to lower than normal HGB as well lower iron stores. Red cell transfusions will replace lost iron so hopefully you have iron results pre-transfuions.

Please let us know how she progresses with all of this.