Exciting News

Mailyna at her 11th bday tea party :)

Our appointment Friday morning at UCSF was quite promising. We MIGHT have found a match! Our doctors are submitting the request to the national registry to the possible donor & requesting additional testing. If that person agrees and is willing to donate marrow, we can proceed with making the final decision to begin the transplant process. If it's just plasma, all bets are off, as it's too risky and most likely wouldn't take. Our appointment was full of mentions of the many medications, chemo drugs, the worst case scenarios, breakdown of the weeks we'll spend in the hospital, the recovery months to follow in isolation, and what will follow that.  The words "information overload" are as accurate as it gets.  So basically we're back to the waiting game. We have a couple weeks til we hear back on what comes next.  After that, we shall see!!

I'd still really encourage friends, family & anyone reading this to still sign up for the bone marrow registry.  Our potential donor can back out at any time, or there may still be a better match out there for her! And to be quite honest, there's a world of people out there that are looking for their match. I want to think that anyone willing to get tested for Mailyna would be willing to help the stranger that may need them. I know it's terrifying, but we asked the doctor exactly what the process was & it's really not as bad as you'd think!  The harvesting process is done under general anesthesia, where a hollow needle is inserted into the hip bone & the marrow is extracted.  Bone marrow is regenerative, so you won't miss it at all!  There is soreness at the site, but they'd be discharged the same day & generally go back to their normal routines the very next day. Pretty easy way to save a life, if you asked me! I get asked "what can I do to help" all the time & that is it. Donate blood if you can, sign up for the registry and encourage your friends/family to do the same. And if you ever way to send Mailyna a hello note, I'm more than willing to share our address! Thank you all for your love & support!!

xo, The Mama