Glad That's Over

Adam just finished his second round of chemo yesterday. This was, hands down, the most difficult one. It was only four days, but it knocked him flat. Two out of the three chemo medicines were ones he had not received before. He also received medicines to manage the side effects, and for the most part, they worked...thank goodness. He was doing much better today and hopefully will continue to feel better now that he's finished. It's back to waiting for his counts to drop to zero and then recover. We still don't know if he will have to undergo a third round before we are transfered downtown. If my understanding is correct, they are waiting to see if this round has put him into a solid remission. We won't know that until they do the bone marrow aspiration after his counts come back up.

On a very significant bright side, we have received confirmation that my HLA typing has come back as a perfect 6 for 6 match for Adam. (This is very interesting since I asked for Mark and myself to be tested just so we could know for sure that we weren't matches.) I still have to get a physical evaluation to see if I am healthy enough to undergo a bone marrow harvest (which would require anesthesia), but if I pass, I will be able to be Adam's bone marrow donor!!!!!

The more I understand about bone marrow transplantation, the more significant my being a match becomes. It is extremely rare for a parent to be a perfect match. I was told by Adam's doctor that they have only seen this when the mother and father were somehow related. Mark and I have a common ancestor on the Mayflower, but that's about it. Our transplant doctor told us that the only way I could be a perfect match for Adam is if Mark and I have some of the same genes. In doing further research, I found that the chances of us having the same genes are something like one in a million. We were also told that the chances of us having a child with an HLA match to one of us is one in one hundred thousand.

It astounds me to sit back and look at this. My faith in God, which has been incredibly strengthened over the course of this experience, allows me to see His hand in all that has happened to us. I thank Him with all my heart, for his active presence in our lives, and for the uninterrupted support that has come from Him.