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Old Sat Apr 15, 2017, 07:18 PM
mezoth mezoth is offline
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Join Date: Apr 2017
Posts: 3
Kirag,

The group at UPenn seem very knowledgeable around AA, I went to them for my second opinion. I have been being treated at Jefferson since October of 2017 for SAA, and have had two rounds of ATG already (the most recent was 4 weeks ago, still hoping it worked). If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to me - I live in downtown Philadelphia and am more then willing to chat with you about ATG and cyclosporin side effects (none of which are drastic).

My HGB transfusion target is 7, but other people I have talked to in the transfusion center at Jefferson have targets as low as 6 - it depends on when you get symptomatic. I have been having regular platelet and HGB transfusions since last October, so I am very used to this process at this point.

If Penn's ATG treatment is anything like Jeff's, expect to be in for 5 days, plus 3-4 if you have any of the "routine" complications (I picked up an infection when it destroyed my immune system on the second round, which kept me in for 3 more days). Expect a couple of weeks after where you just feel... exhausted, but not terrible. And my advice is to do it sooner rather then later - the more bone marrow you go into the process with, the faster your recovery will be if the treatment works.
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