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A question for you:
“Do you like popcorn?” Hope
the response is “yes,” because there has been a link between popcorn
and platlets. Though not
scientifically proven, a number of AA patients have reported (and I’m
one of them) that eating popcorn helped extend the life of platelets.
Try a least a cup or more a day.
You have nothing to lose and if you like popcorn, that’s even
better. Just be careful of
the sharp little fragments of the kernel that usually get stuck in your
teeth. (You mentioned your struggle with platelets).
Funny, but I kept a chart of all my blood counts
over a period of about three years. You
may know that I was diagnosed with AA in 1984, back when the current
therapies were experimental. I
was one of the patients in the original trials.
I received ATG (horse instead of rabbit) in 1984, 1987 and 1990. After making major lifestyle changes in 1990, I’ve done
well without transfusions and medication until now. I received my
treatment at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle,
Washington, where the early trials were conducted.
I believe surviving this disease is one part
medicine, one part support from friends and family, and one part attitude.
It took a year and a half for my diagnosis of AA.
I was in the Air Force at the time.
It wasn’t until the monster was named that I started doing
better.
I also had another thing going for me.
A doctor told me a story about a patient he knew who had AA.
This was before advanced treatments like those available to us. He said she was supported with transfusions for ten years,
afterwhich, she suddenly “recovered.”
No one could explain why. My
goal became the survive for ten years in hopes of a spontaneous recovery
of my own. Although I have
had ATG three times, seventeen years later from the date of my diagnosis,
I have essentially recovered. I
haven’t had a transfusion since 1991, require no medications.
My counts are a long way from normal, but my body and I have an
agreement. I will do my best
to take care of it, and it will do its best to function as normally as
possible.
I will keep you in my prayers knowing all the
goodness that can be sent your way because I have experienced it myself.
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