Hi Lori -- Thanks for asking about my sweet wife. There's a story to tell, but, overall, things are looking up, thank the good Lord. As you know, Rachel's blood counts have been dwindling for the past 18 months. She's had several transfusions and plenty of Procrit shots. What you don't know is that, for the same 18 month period, Rachel had a benign tumor inside her spine which was pressing on the spinal cord, causing lots of pain and numbness. According to most doctors, the tumor has nothing to do with the MDS and the blood numbers. Two weeks ago, an amazing "miracle worker" surgeon, Dr Kelly Gassie, removed the tumor. There was a lot of doctor clamor before the surgery because low WBC counts would certainly lead to post-operation infection. Nevertheless, Dr Gassie agreed to Rachel's wishes and removed the tumor and, after two weeks, only a faint UTI (from the foley) is present. Further, what is really wonderful, is that our first CBC after the surgery shows marked improvement in blood numbers. One hematologist said "Your bone marrow is responding to the tumor removal." I will wait for a second CBC before popping the champagne, but I sure like hemoglobin at 9.3. It has been as low as 5.2.