Numbers Game

Friends and Family....

We had some discouraging news today.  Dr. Holtan at OHSU told us that Pam's brothers, Mark and Mike, are not a match for the bone marrow transplant.  Each of them had a 50% chance of being a match, but this is a case where 50 + 50 does not equal 100.

So, Pam will have to get her transplant from someone in the national bone marrow registry.  Dr. Holtan told us that out of 20 Million people in the registry, 60 of them are potential matches with Pam and chances are very good that at least one of them will be an excellent match for Pam.

This whole process of finding a willing and appropriate donor from the 60 potential matches, then collecting the donated stem cells is going to take some time.  Since Pam can only go about 5 weeks without chemotherapy, she will, more than likely, have at least one more round of chemo and possibly two more rounds before she can finally get the transplant.

So, wild guess, I don't believe we are going to get the transplant done before the end of the year.  BUT, good news, I am wrong all of the time. Ask anybody. I hope like hell that my streak continues.