[marmab]

Hopeful and Lisa,

Your clarifications and explanations are excellent. It is quite illuminating to hear from those who have "been there and done that". I do see the reasoning behind waiting as long as possible to do anything if I absolutely don't have to, and then choosing the most efficacious and least toxic option for the particular case. Your point was well taken about blood counts, i.e. the viewpoint when you're on the decline vs. coming back up from the bottom.

AND. last but not least, I am holding out hope that my counts will bottom out sooner rather than later (lower), or maybe even begin to recover on their own. I am seeing a pattern where my whites and reds are declining s..l..o..w..l..y; it's my platelets that are going down more quickly. Not sure why.

Thanks, always, for your intelligent and well-informed input.

marmab