[maggiemag]

Hello, MBlackmon; I'm sorry you had to join our club! Paul has listed some very good questions for you to ask your doctor; you might consider printing out his post to take with you to your appointment.
Additionally, besides the inconvenience of having transfusions and stuff, severe anemia can cause heart attacks. Hemoglobin carries oxygen to the cells and if it is too low, the heart muscle doesn't get enough oxygen to function correctly, which can cause chest pain and serious heart attacks, with the heart muscle permanently damaged. As the heart has to work harder to make up for the lack of enough oxygen, you go into heart failure, with symptoms of shortness of breath, swelling in ankles, enlarged liver, etc., etc. The heart keeps enlarging to compensate. As it progresses, it becomes harder to treat. These are all reasons why the physicians want to keep your Hb up closer to normal limits.
I just wanted to briefly explain what happens, hope I didn't overstep boundaries!
Mags