Falling Into a Medical Abyss

Mark- thank you for writing about aplastic anemia. Four years ago my 18 year old son was diagnosed with it. Of course, we had never heard of it. We ran to the internet to read about it and were completely freaked out.
With the help of excellent doctors at Hershey Medical Center pediatric oncology unit we quickly got to see Dr. Neil Young at NIH in Bethesda. He entered my son in a clinical trail with certain drugs he was working with. My son spent 10 long days at the NIH hospital where they basically killed his own immune system and re-booted it. After taking the drugs for six months, his red cells, white cells and platelets began creeping up. for the past 3 years his levels have benn normal. I recommend you contacting the NIH and Dr Young.. He saved my son's life.

Mark- thank you for writing about aplastic anemia. Four years ago my 18 year old son was diagnosed with it. Of course, we had never heard of it. We ran to the internet to read about it and were completely freaked out.
With the help of excellent doctors at Hershey Medical Center pediatric oncology unit we quickly got to see Dr. Neil Young at NIH in Bethesda. He entered my son in a clinical trail with certain drugs he was working with. My son spent 10 long days at the NIH hospital where they basically killed his own immune system and re-booted it. After taking the drugs for six months, his red cells, white cells and platelets began creeping up. for the past 3 years his levels have benn normal. I recommend you contacting the NIH and Dr Young.. He saved my son's life.

Excellent article Mark! You are an amazing writer. Unfortunately, what you are going through is no picnic. Thank you for bringing to light the plight of people with "not so popular" diagnoses. I have been a nurse for 19 years, and of course have seen many things in my career. But on the personal side, my mother spent 18 months battling her acute lymphocytic leukemia at the Taussig Cancer Center. Thank you for your article.

Hi Mark, I have an auto-immune disease also. I have been fortunate enough to find a physician that will prescribe Low Dose Naltrexone (4.5 mg nightly) and the progression of my disease has completely stopped. I have my life back. I was almost to the point of having to quit work, but now am vibrant, and symptom free. This drug has no side effects, so you have nothing to lose by trying it. It is a generic drug, but must be compounded, so make sure you get a pharmacy to compound it that puts in a quick release filler. I read your article and felt the need to tell you about my experience. You may have trouble finding a physician that will prescribe it for you, because no pharmaceutical company will perform testing on it, even though it has been approved since 1985 for other uses. Please visit www.lowdosenaltrexone.com and read more about how it works. It allows the immune system to regulate itself and stop attacking your good cells. My husband and I are both on it and it has been a miracle. It only costs $20 a month. If you can't find a good pharmacy, let me know. I can refer you to one that compounds for me. I hope you will try LDN and find that you can get your life back as well. It's worth a try since there are no side effects. Please research the work of Dr. Barnard Bihari and you can learn much more. Good luck. Bev from Kentucky.

Hi Mark, I have an auto-immune disease also. I have been fortunate enough to find a physician that will prescribe Low Dose Naltrexone (4.5 mg nightly) and the progression of my disease has completely stopped. I have my life back. I was almost to the point of having to quit work, but now am vibrant, and symptom free. This drug has no side effects, so you have nothing to lose by trying it. It is a generic drug, but must be compounded, so make sure you get a pharmacy to compound it that puts in a quick release filler. I read your article and felt the need to tell you about my experience. You may have trouble finding a physician that will prescribe it for you, because no pharmaceutical company will perform testing on it, even though it has been approved since 1985 for other uses. Please visit www.lowdosenaltrexone.com and read more about how it works. It allows the immune system to regulate itself and stop attacking your good cells. My husband and I are both on it and it has been a miracle. It only costs $20 a month. If you can't find a good pharmacy, let me know. I can refer you to one that compounds for me. I hope you will try LDN and find that you can get your life back as well. It's worth a try since there are no side effects. Please research the work of Dr. Barnard Bihari and you can learn much more. Good luck. Bev from Kentucky.

Hi Mark, I too had severe Aplastic Anemia, much to my shock after being healthy and fit all my life until I was 47. I felt much like you, where all of a sudden Breast Cancer would have been an easier disease to be diagnosed with and fight. My brother turned out to be a perfect match for a Bone Marrow Transplant and I am now 3 months post transplant and feeling very well. I have a long way to go in recovery though and am watching for signs of Graft Vs. Host Disease and other infections that may occur at any time with a still new and very immature immune system. I have a positive attitude though that I will recover. I had one ATG treatment that seemed much more difficult to get through than a Bone Marrow Transplant. Also with the BMT I was on rejection drugs for a much shorter time period. The trick for you is to protect yourself from infections and sick people in public until your immune system gets stronger with an ATG treatment or a BMT. Keep positive, get treatment right away and I pray that your SAA is cured.
T-She from Canada