We have a 10 of 10 Match!!

Everything works out for a reason...

With all the switching and waiting and cancellations of donors, a 10 of 10 marrow donor was found!! We are so elated!! She is a 24 year old woman. Even though several 9 of 10 donors were lined up, the wonderful marrow search coordinator at Stanford kept requesting more samples. She said there was one that looked promising, but couldn’t make her appointments for a blood draw. She said that until Brianna is admitted, she will continue to search and test samples. Thank God for her!!!

This was obviously meant to be, even though the ups and downs were really tough on us emotionally. And thankfully, this new donor responded to the urgent request and agreed to donate her marrow on Feb. 20! We’re still waiting to hear if she’s passed her physical, but Brianna is now slated to be admitted on Monday, Feb. 12. She will go through a week’s worth of conditioning (total body irradiation and chemotherapy) and then on day 0 (Feb. 21) she’ll get her new marrow!! We are still thanking the man upstairs for the wondrous turn of events! This means Brianna will have much less chance of Graft-versus-Host Disease, she will most likely have an easier recovery and will overall have a better outcome.

On Monday, Brianna will get a central line – which is a deep-vein IV placed in the chest and which will remain in place for some 6 months or so. She’s a little nervous about it, because she’s always been so healthy and has never had stitches or surgery before all this. At the same time, they will be doing another bone marrow aspiration to check her marrow. BUT, she is so glad it’s finally happening!

Thank you all again for your prayers. Now the really hard part will begin.

Again, we are so thankful for this new donor and her willingness to step up to the plate so quickly for a complete stranger. She is donating her time, some pain and needle sticks, and her much-needed marrow. Wow, I am just blown away by the generosity of this person and I thank God for her.

God bless....Iva

PS - Thanks again to all those who donate blood and platelets.