Too Worn Out for a Long Post

Today, Tyler and I met with Dr Tony Bedalov from the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance. The net result of the meeting today was that he recommends we proceed with a stem cell/bone marrow transplant as soon as possible. We are both discouraged after a long day of bad news, so we have decided to take the evening off. But... I know several folks are waiting to hear news about our appointment today, so I wanted to post the highlights at least.

Tyler and Gump both gave blood today to begin the process of determining whether or not they are a match in tissue types. There is about a 25% chance that they will match. If they do, we have been advised that Tyler could begin the transplant process as early as mid-August.

If they don't match, we will turn to the National Marrow Donor Registry program to see if we can find a match there. If we have to go this route, we will have more of a delay while finding a match.

I signed up for the National Marrow Donor Registry today and feel really good about having completed that step. It was incredibly easy (once the Blood Bank folks found the forms for me to complete). I basically rubbed my cheek with a Q-tip 4 times in a row and filled out a form. If you have been thinking about helping us out (or doing something in Tyler's honor), I urge you to contact your local blood bank to sign up yourself.

We'll try to post more details later, but... for now... It looks like we'll be experiencing a transplant this fall.

Mandy