Hi Merry!
I'm blown away by your story. I've copied in a bit about myelodyspasia from wikipedia at the bottom of this post. I totally think you are right. If you look at the Edward P. Evans Foundation website
http://epefoundation.org/ and choose "Supported Research" (2nd tab across top menu bar), you can see the different projects that they are supporting.
The project at Griffith University is calleds "Investigation of Immunological and Genetic Features of CFS and MDS". They must be trying to tie these two together, yes?
This is huge!! If there is a link, we may be able to partner up with MDS associations somehow. Maybe we could get the government more interested in CFS if it is linked with MDS! I think this could use some investigating and would make a terrifc front page article here. I wonder if Dr. Koegelnik would have an opinion on it? It would be interesting if we find an MDS forum and ask people if they have ever had CFS type symptoms......
The
myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS, formerly known as
preleukemia) are a diverse collection of
hematological (blood-related) medical conditions that involve ineffective production (or
dysplasia) of the
myeloid class of blood cells.
[1]
Patients with MDS often develop severe
anemia and require frequent
blood transfusions. In most cases, the disease worsens and the patient develops
cytopenias (low blood counts) caused by progressive
bone marrow failure.
The outlook in MDS is poor, and 20 to 30% of patients will progress within a few months or years to refractory
acute myeloid leukemia. The median survival varies from years to months.
[2]