Minibuffer wipeout: "Auto-saving... done"

["David Vanderschel" <DJV4@Austin.RR.com>]

I have a program which prepares a multi-line display
for interaction in the minibuffer.  It behaves as I
intend.  However, I have a problem in that the content
of the buffer is occasionally erased by the 'echo'
which results from auto-saving.  (My program remains
active and will react to input correctly even though
its display in the minibuffer has been wiped out.
Oddly, my enlarged height for the minibuffer remains
in effect.)  I was aware of the fact that I needed to
have echo-keystrokes set to 0 to avoid one possible
source of such preemptions of the minibuffer; but I
would like to have some advice about how to prevent
getting my minibuffer content erased by the string
"Auto-saving... done."

I tried executing do-auto-save just before invoking my
function.  All that did was to _assure_ that my
minibuffer content was wiped out - even when I put a
(sit-for 5) after the do-auto-save and before my
program selected the minibuffer window and wrote in
it.  (I find this symptom incomprehensible; so, if
someone could enlighten me, I would appreciate it.)  I
also tried a let binding on auto-save-interval to set
it to something large while my minibuffer window was
active.  No joy.  FWIW, the buffer current when the
function can be invoked is not itself even subject to
auto-saving - it doesn't even have an associated file.

A good solution would be a method for temporarily
suppressing all auto-saves while my interaction is in
progress, which should never be for more than a few
tens of seconds.

If it is not possible to avoid the wipeout, is there a
way to learn that it has happened so that I can repair
it?  I cannot periodically check the content of the
buffer because I am stuck waiting on input.  I was
using read-event, but that was giving me problems with
quit until I switched to read-key-sequence.  (I
mention the latter because there may be a way by which
read-event can learn about the auto-save (but I doubt
it).)  If there were an after-hook for auto-save, that
might help; but I find only a before-hook for
auto-save.

Any help appreciated,
  David V.