As The Pendulum Swings

Well, we did it again.  It seems like every time we think we know what is going to happen, not only are we mistaken but we are so mistaken that what actually happens hits us in the face with a frying pan.  It reminds me of Wile E. Coyote.

We thought we knew exactly what the Northside specialist was going to say.  After all, the Emory Doc was so confident in his diagnosis, surely he couldn't be wrong. We had the right answer, we just wanted someone else to ask the question.

WRONG!

He did a great job explaining everything to us about what the findings were and what the
treatment options were  for someone with severe aplastic anemia.

What was that? Did he just say severe?

Turns out that, according to Natalie's blood counts and the diagnostic criteria she meets 2 of the 3 requirements to be considered to have severe aplastic anemia. If that isn't enough, the treatment regimen that he would recommend would be bone marrow transplant first - before drug therapy at all.

This must be a joke....where are the cameras?

No joke. Although he did make a compelling argument that bone marrow transplant would be curative and, while she may respond to the drug therapy, she is so young that she would have a higher risk of relapse than the standard population. Remember that the normal age groups who are infected are either really young or really old. And so we wait for the one number that would indicate that she would go through a bone marrow transplant as first line treatment. So we are back to the questions about what we should do.