My mother ended up getting 2 units of blood today. 10 days after a transfusion, she had a big rise in blood and then a few days later, she crashed down to 6.0. The hematologist doesn't have any answers, other than she does believe the bone marrow "gets turned on" (good thing), and then decides to suddenly turn off. She said the natural rises are good, but they are not holding. 6 weeks ago, my mother's blood held for almost 3 weeks between 7.5 and 7.7. The doctor thought things were looking bright and then she crashed again. She said the illness is a mystery and no two aplastic anemics are alike. We will just continue to wait, but she did say that unpredictability is a good thing because it means that the disease has not taken a definite course, even at a 1 year post ATG. I guess that makes sense. We were also told that any natural rise in platelets is very likely to signify recovery, even though that has never happened (even once).
My mother's neutrophils were at 900-1200 for about 4 months.. Now, they are averaging about 400. Again, the hematologist is baffled by the yo-yo'nish of her blood and neutrophils (platelets are always the same, however) She said it's still a waiting game. But if things don't improve in the next 4 months or so, my mother is going to do Campath, which is what Dr. Young has recommended. He says that is the best bet for her to make a recovery. But he still believes my mother should wait for several more months to see if horse-atg kicks in somehow. He's seen a few cases where it takes up to two years to get off transfusions on atg, although mainly in older people. We just keep on going.......
