Good News from Vanderbilt

Nothing is certain yet, but today's news is good. In the international donor base there are two people who are complete HLA matches for me. They are CMV negative and I am CMV positive so that is of some concern. We'd like to both be positive or both be negative.

There are some other people who may be matches. What "complete" for Vanderbilt means is that these people have had all the HLA tests that Vanderbilt ran on me and that we match. They will have to have the tests redone to double check. Three other people were chosen who may be matches. They have not had all the tests run that Vanderbilt does.

So now we wait on the donors. They will all have to get physicals and have blood drawn and sent to Vanderbilt. Once Vanderbilt gets the samples, it will be about 10 days before they can tell if these people are perfect matches for me or not. The ages of these people are 22, 22, 23, 21 and 38. The 22s are the two that currently look like complete matches on the HLA.

I think that if I get bone marrow from one of these 20 somethings, I will be like a 20 something afterwards. My hair will come back in with no grey and I will be as energetic as I was in graduate school. This is a good thing! LOL

Now the hard part is the waiting. It will take several weeks to accomplish all the testing and such. When I asked I was told that the very earliest anything about the transplant could start would be the first of June. And probably a week or so later. It just depends on the donors and their schedules. Me, I am ready anytime after DD#2's 16th birthday. Gotta be here for that and to go get the all important Driver's License.

In the meanwhile, I will do my best to stay well and will continue getting the transfusions twice a week so that I can maintain. Last Thursday my neutrophils were 0.4, but yesterday they were back up to 0.6.

Thinking positively is a good thing!