Mayo Clinic Health Manager
Get free personalized health guidance for you and your family.
Get Started
close window
Housecall Archives
About our e-newsletters
- Free e-newsletters
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- We do not share your e-mail address
Housecall, our weekly general-interest e-newsletter, keeps you up to date on a wide variety of health topics with timely, reliable, practical information, recipes, blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts and more. Our biweekly topic-specific e-newsletters also include blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts, and other useful information that will help you manage your health.
Housecall Archives
close window
Mayo Clinic Housecall
Stay up to date on the latest health information.
What you get
- Free weekly e-newsletter
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- Recipes, tools and other helpful information
- We do not share your e-mail address
Coping and support
By Mayo Clinic staffAs with any serious and chronic disease, you may experience many emotional side effects from living with aplastic anemia. Tips to help you and your family better cope with your illness include:
- Research your disease. The more you know, the better prepared you'll be to make treatment decisions.
- Ask questions. Be sure to ask your doctor about anything related to your disease or treatment that you don't understand. It may help you to record or write down what your doctor tells you.
- Be vocal. Don't be afraid to express any concerns you have to your doctor or any other health care professional treating you.
- Seek support. Ask family and friends for emotional support. Ask them to consider becoming blood donors or bone marrow donors. Consider joining an aplastic anemia support group. It may be helpful to talk to others coping with the disease. Ask your doctor if he or she knows of any local support groups, or contact the Aplastic Anemia & MDS International Foundation. They offer a peer support network and can be reached at 800-747-2820.
- Take care of yourself. Proper nutrition and sleep are important to optimize blood production.
References
- Aplastic anemia. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/dci/Diseases/aplastic/aplastic_all.html. Accessed Feb. 5, 2009.
- Aplastic anemia. The Merck Manuals: The Merck Manual for Healthcare Professionals. http://www.merck.com/mmpe/sec11/ch130/ch130f.html#sec11-ch130-ch130e-91. Accessed Feb. 5, 2009.
- Young NS. Aplastic anemia. Current Opinion in Hematology. 2008;15:162.
- Schrier SL. Aplastic anemia: Pathogenesis; clinical manifestations; and diagnosis. http://www.uptodate.com/home/index.html. Accessed Feb. 5, 2009.
- Schrier SL. Aplastic anemia: Prognosis and treatment. http://www.uptodate.com/home/index.html. Accessed Feb. 5, 2009.
- Shih RD. Plants, mushrooms, and herbal medications. In: Marx JA, et al. Rosen's Emergency Medicine: Concepts and Clinical Practice. 6th ed. Philadelphia, Pa.: Mosby Elsevier; 2006. http://www.mdconsult.com/das/book/body/119296292-3/801134565/1365/515.html#4-u1.0-B0-323-02845-4..50167-0--cesec32_8318. Accessed Feb. 6, 2009.
