[Marlene]

It's good that you are going to ask your doc how experienced he is with treating MDS. I also encourage you both to take the time and get at least one second opinion. You are close enough to go Hopkins. I remember hearing lots of good info on a Dr. Gore out of Hopkins. Don't know if he's still there but many MDS patients spoke well of him. NIH is also close so you may want to explore what they are up to these days.

You want to know what all your options are, and become informed about them.

Regarding outcome and expectations.....You can ask and everyone will have a different story to tell. No one can predict how well you will do, what side effects you will encounter and what problems will arise.

I remember when John was going through treatment, I took mental notes of all the problems others where experiencing with treatment so I could be on the lookout for them. (that's another way of saying "so I could worry about them"). Only to find out that the 15 things I worried about never happen and instead, he had his own unique set challenges. I finally realized that things would come up and we would deal with them. I was comforted to know that we were in the best place for them to be handled by a very experienced and caring health care team. They were quick to recognize problems and able to act swiftly.

I also approached this by breaking down this challenge in smaller segments so I could focus on the most important aspects. Kind of like project timeline. So the first step was to get an accurate diagnosis, then research treatments and docs, then treatment, etc. I then broke down the major steps of the treatment so that I did not worry about what was going to happen two months out.

Marlene