How quickly things change

It seems they found another donor, a 36 year-old male in the U.S., who is very likely to be a 9/10 match. There are still some ifs -- if he responds to the call, and if his detailed blood work shows he is indeed a match, then they'll schedule the transplant as soon as he is ready. That could be as early as next week, but it probably won't happen that fast. We probably won't even know whether he's a match until next week. This is very good news; while the outcomes from cord blood transplants look like they're nearly as good as marrow transplants, cord blood transplants are definitely riskier. So please send up prayers and vibes to get this guy into his blood center quickly!

Because the transplant is now being delayed, Dr. Loh wants to bring Mina Brigitta in for another round of chemo, so we'll likely be checking back into the hospital on Thursday. She has to try to concoct a regimen that is intensive enough to keep the leukemia cells down but not so intensive that she ends up with a fungal infection that compromises her ability to make it through transplant. We'll probably be able to come home over the weekend while her counts are dropping, but my guess is that there won't be a break between this round of chemo and the transplant. So we'll be in-patient basically from now until probably sometime in May. Ugh, Mina Brigitta is going to be very unhappy.