Hi @girlmidget. Welcome to Connect! You’ve come to the right place to be able to speak first hand with those of us who have had AML or MDS and required a bone marrow/stem cell transplant. Your husband, from my experience, with his age and overall good health except for differential blood numbers, could be a candidate for transplant. Obviously the final decision is with your husband, you and his doctor.

I had my SCT almost 6 years ago for high risk AML at the age of 65. I’m now 71, cancer free and living an amazing 2nd life. I travel, exercise, have excellent energy levels and very minimal issues related to the SCT. My life, I’d say, 98% normal?? But then again, I’m also 71 so I can’t expect to always feel like I’m in my 20s.

I’d like to introduce you and your husband to @katgob, @dwolden @mary612 @alive @edb1123 @kt2013 @jenmkr63 @jrwilli1 @tkidd51 and a growing list of successful BMT/SCT for our blood cancers.

To answer your question, at this time, a bone marrow transplant remains the only potential cure for MDS/AML. I’m not sure where your husband is getting his information but there are more success stories than failures. I’d encourage him to stay off Dr Google.
If he elects not to go with the transplant and his disease keeps progressing, from my own experience with advanced AML, there will be more reliance on transfusions and medications. With that comes weakness and fatigue. I believe he’s experiencing some of that already so basically it is more of the same.
With a transplant he’ll have a few early months immediately following the transplant, of fatigue, possibly nausea. But slowly and steadily blood numbers start building and life takes on more normalcy. Many of us, like myself, no longer have transfusions or even take any meds when we’re past a certain recovery point. So I hope that your husband will have a long talk with his doctors, you and your family about possibly going ahead with the transplant. The process is not a walk on the beach by any means and as with any medical procedure there are risks, but it is also an opportunity for a 2nd chance at a healthy life.
Do you live near where the transplant center?