Salutations from Sara

                                                               

Sara and the Wild Things                                              

I am now a month into this journey and things have gone well. I found out last week that I am considered to be in “remission”, which was the goal of the first round of chemotherapy. I had another bone marrow aspirate and after analysis of that, the doctors determined that I still had 2% leukemic cells, but less than 5% is considered to be remission (when I started, 70% of my white blood cells were leukemic). This remission is good news and means that I can proceed with the next step, which is more chemo. This will start on Friday the 13th! It’s a hard thing to look forward to… but I realize that it takes me a step closer to the long term goal.

We also received the blood typing results for Chris, my brother, this week. He unfortunately is not a stem cell transplant donor match for me. As there was only a 25% chance that he would be a match, we weren’t surprised by this news. The good news about my HLA (human leukocyte antigen) is that I have common antigens so the doctors expect that I should be able to find a stem cell transplant match from the donor registry. This process usually takes 2-6 months. The transplant team has initiated the next steps in the matching process.

Many people have asked about how they can register with the stem cell donor bank. That information is available at: http://www.onematch.ca/  or http://www.bloodservices.ca/

                                                                     

Team Tod comb-over

While people that I know may not be a match for me, they may be a match for someone else in circumstances similar to mine.

I’ve been able to have this past week “off” from the hospital. It is a big treat to stay home and not have to rush back for the evening curfew. I’ve been feeling very well over the past week and sometimes forget that I’m sick. I do, however, seem to be overcome by a wave of fatigue whenever there are meals to organize or dishes to be done (No one has caught on yet …).

While Kevin, Erin and Ali were away at a ringette tournament in Saskatoon last week-end, I had a girls’ week-end here – including bubbly – Perrier – almost like old times.

Thanks again for all of the ongoing help and support. We have enjoyed some great meals. Kevin and the girls are getting spoiled. We will try and let people know about the matching process.
 

 Thanks, Sara , Kevin , Erin and Ali

                                              

              It's definetly working better for Mom than it is for Dad