Friday, October 16, 2009

It's Maura

Today I heard from my social worker that the HLA testing has found a match. I was told that the match was so good in the first test that the odds are 99% that the further testing will verify the match. If I was to choose who would be the donor for my bone marrow transplant then I would probably choose Maura, my youngest sister. She probably has the longest telomeres because she is the youngest of all my siblings. She also lives closer than most of my other siblings which will make it logistically less complicated.
It so happens that out of all my brothers and sisters that Maura is the only match. I am so lucky to have so many siblings. I was told that the chance of a match was one in four. The way my luck has been going, I was not optimistic. I am so grateful for Catholic church and their rhythm method. I never thought I would be as happy as I am now for that surprise baby sister.
I remember feeding Maura with a bottle and changing her diapers when I was 11 years old. I am sorry Maura that I waited for mom to come home that one time so she could change your diaper instead of me. I remember you looking at me and crying and I knew what you wanted me to do. I always felt guilty about that because mom was a little late. You probably don't remember.
My platelet counts are dropping these past few weeks. I had another bone marrow biopsy done yesterday to see if the cancer is coming back. Preliminary results show that it is not as bad as I thought it might be. Still it is more urgent than before that I be admitted soon to start my next treatment to prepare for my bone marrow transplant. Tentatively I will be admitted the week of October 26th. That gives me just enough time to go to Washington to do one last dog race. The race will be over by 0830 AM Sunday so we should be able to get back to SF in time.

Wish me luck

Mike
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2 comments:

  1. Faith EmilyOctober 17, 2009 at 7:16 AM

    Mike,
    This is GREAT news. btw, Faith and I will be in the SF Bay area from Oct. 31- so let us know if we can visit you.
    Great idea to compete in Washington- the perfect way to prepare for your transplant odyssey. To be strong is the key to your success and strong you are! Keep up these blogs so we can keep up with your news.
    Love, Nancy

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  2. PatriciaOctober 21, 2009 at 11:54 PM

    Hello,
    My name is Patricia and Tom M is my husband, he wrote to you a while ago about his stem cell transplant at Stanford. I am also an RN annd I was with Tom most of the time he was in the hospital.I am so happy for your great match but I am concerned about your plans to compete in Washington. I want to reiterate the dangers of physical activities when your platelets are low and although you did not mention it, your WBC are probably lower than normal as well. Please double check with your team and make sure they understand exactly what you will be doing. I felt compelled to write because we had a friend whose brother also had AML and was days away from being admitted for treatment and he decided to take his boys on one last camping trip and he died very suddenly from bleeding and infection. I do not want to be a downer, but I had to voice my concerns. Best of luck to you, Patricia

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