Marmab,
Lisa V made an important point about transfusions being a serious thing that carry serious risks. The level of safeguards involved in the modern blood collection, distribution, and administration process are all designed to make it nearly foolproof. So the chance of getting the wrong type of blood is infinitesimal, and the chance of picking up something like HIV is 500,000 or a million to one. It's not something I worry about.
But I did, relatively early on, pick up a couple of blood antibodies. That makes it more of a challenge for my blood bank to find blood for me. I fact, Almost all the blood I receive comes form a big regional blood center in St. Paul, MN. I need to learn more about the implication of these antibodies for transplant, but I haven't done that reading yet.
That makes elective transfusion a bit of a question-mark. I don't have a choice, given my HgB levels, and was, in fact, transfused before I was diagnosed.
As far as cost is concerned, I use a small town hospital in rural NC. The transfusion is administered in the day surgery wing; I typically have two units of packed red blood cells. Occasionally, if I have to have blood on a weekend or holiday, they have to give me a room upstairs in the inpatient area for the day. The cost ranges from $1500 to $2000 per transfusion, not including whatever my hematologist changes for the CBC or for writing the order. Insurance covers 80% of that until I meet my out of pocket maximum.
You may need to see whether your insurance company has a policy that says your Hgb needs to be at a certain level before they will pay for the procedure. I may have mentioned this already, but the rule of thumb around these parts seems to be that you transfuse at about 8.0. NIH told me they transfuse folks over 60 at 9.0.
And Lisa's point about MDS or AA is definitely worth checking out.
There's a well-read AA site here by a guy that has used a bunch of natural therapies (including coffee enemas!
) to get his AA under control. Might be worth checking out. And I'm sure other folks will have thoughts along those lines.
Something else to think about while you're in watch and wait and at a very low risk status are CoQ10 and Curcumin (the active ingredient in turmeric). Dr. Azra Raza (as well as some folks at MD Anderson) have been working with these in MDS. An initial study by Raza showed some promise for CoQ10, but then she moved from MA to NY, and I don't think those trials have started back up. I can send you some info on that if you'd like.
If your doc needs some data on the Campath experiments at NIH, I have copies of the two papers on results thus far -- or I can email them to you if you have a hankering to wade through tedious research stuff.
Take care!
Greg