Donald Hirsch

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Don was diagnosed with Myelodysplastic Syndrome (MDS) in October 2020, which is a type of blood cancer.  The initial doctor he saw wanted to take a "wait and see" approach.  However, we were extremely lucky to get referred to the University of Minnesota Medical Center, where they determined the best treatment option (and only known cure) is to have a bone marrow transplant.  To get started his blast number need to be less than 5.  Since they were at 9, he started taking low-dose chemo pills, for one week each month.  Luckily he didn't have any adverse reaction to this and has stayed active and healthy throughout these treatments.

Thankfully his latest bone marrow biopsy showed that his blast number is under 5 and a matched unrelated donor has been identified.  The donor and Don need to go through numerous tests to confirm things can proceed as planned.  We will keep you updated as the date of the transplant is scheduled and how things are going.