As I have had only two appointments with my MD, one for the BMB, and one for the Dx, I am finding this forum extremely helpful. Thanks so much for the replies to my queries, and for all the information. In response to Hopeful, my counts are currently WBC 3.3, RBC 2.46, Hgb 9.3, Hct 27.2 MCV 111, MCH 37.0 and Plt 44. Because I have three cytopenias, my IPSS score is Intermediate 1. Thanks for the information on IST -- I will talk to the MD about it. And thank you to Neil and Ryan Jay for your responses too. The other forum I found is the one at the Myelodysplastic Foundation,
www.mds-foundation.org. I have been following a blog (that I found at the mds forum, andy-mds-recovery-journal.blogspot.com[/color]) by Andy Robert, who also highly recommended Dr. Antin at Dana Farber. Andy is currently in the hospital in Boston, having just received his transplant.
I have ordered copies of my records, so I will have more information about the BMB pathology, etc. when I receive them. It's not that the doctor was hiding anything from me; I think that he was just presenting the findings in a basic manner because he didn't want to overwhelm me with technical information about the Dx at my first appointment. He did say that most patients have many more questions at the second appointment after Dx.
Thanks so much again.
mac