During the spring when we were talking to a surgeon about an upcoming surgery for our 4 yr old son, we mentioned our position on blood transfusions. We told him what alternatives would be acceptable and EPO was one that we felt was acceptable. The surgeon told us that EPO takes 3 weeks to work and would be useless in such a situation. Is this true? As it turned out, there was minimal blood loss and it never became an issue, but I just wanted to know.