we have a match!!!!!!!!

As you know all five of my siblings were(& are being) tested to see if one of them can be a bone marrow donor. My sister Mandy just called to tell me that she received a phone call from the Transplant Case Manager, and she is a match. The case manager also said that she hasn't been able to get a hold of another sister of mine, who is also a match. The case manager could not tell her who. My guess is Chalice, because she's busy... and it's probably difficult to get a hold of her.

So we have two matches. We are so so so lucky. Does that mean that I just choose the sister I like the best? No. I forgot to mention, my brothers' test results have not come back yet. We won't know if they matched until next week. Once their results are in, then all who matched will send in another blood sample and they will further test for the best of the best match.

I didn't doubt that I would have a sibling match, but to have more than one is really lucky. When I told the nurse she just said, "Sibling matches are so much better". Nurses are wise. They know a lot. They see a lot. 

To answer Stephanie's facebook question, being a genetic match doesn't have anything to do with looks. I don't know anything about genetics, but I know it doesn't have anything to do with looks. Im going to do some research so I can explain it better... and not sound like a total idiot. I thought the same thing. I just assumed it would be Spencer, because after shaving my head I was surprised how much I look like him. 

So hooray to multiple matches that allow us to be, as Mandy said on facebook, choosey.

I found this information on the Nation Bone Marrow Transplant Link website.

Peripheral Blood Stem Cell Transplant
When stem cells are taken from the circulating blood, the procedure is more like a blood donation. The stem cells in the circulating blood are called peripheral blood stem cells (PBSC). Like the stem cells in the bone marrow, they are able to divide and produce red cells, white cells and platelets. The concentration of peripheral blood stem cells in the blood, however, is very low. In order to collect them, medications known as colony stimulating factors or growth factors are given to the donor to stimulate the bone marrow to produce more stem cells, which are then released into the blood stream. The growth factors are administered as injections under the skin daily for a maximum of five days duration. Once they are in the blood, these stem cells are collected in one or more sessions normally taking four to six hours each. Stem cell collections are performed as outpatient procedures. Donors should plan to spend most of the day in the hospital on the day of collection. In this procedure, which is called apheresis, the blood circulates through a machine called a cell separator that removes the peripheral stem cells and returns the rest of the blood to the body. The stem cells are then stored and frozen until the time of the transplant for autologous bone marrow transplants. If the stem cells are collected from a related or unrelated donor, they are given immediately.