Details on Steve's donor search

For those of you interested, this is how Steve's marrow donor search proceeded. In querying the national and international marrow data bases, the search team found:

US: 6 possibles...4 of those were unavailable, 2 gave, no perfect matches

International: 3 possibles...1 of those unavailable, 1 tested but was a mismatch, 1 who will give a sample next week, so this one we still don't know about.

Cord Blood: No matches

Once a potential match is made, the donor will be given a thorough physical, take growth hormone shots for five days, then give a blood draw similar to a platelet donation to harvest the maximum number of stem cells.

So the team is waiting to see the details on this last international donor who showed up after a month of hearing nothing. This will take another two weeks. And thinking that if necessary, they will conduct the transplant using one of the US donors who was a complete mismatch on the C antigen. This will mean Steven has to take immuno suppressants for a much longer period to counter rejection since the new system (new DNA, new blood type, new allergies or lack of same) rejects the host. Before destroying Steven's own system for the transplant, they need to have a donor ready, with a back-up choice just in case.

All of this would suggest, that if you ever need a marrow transplant, it is best if you come from a very large family living for centuries in a small village that is very inbred!

Steven is getting some color back in his face and is much improved from last week's bout with influenza when he was truly miserable. Still no energy, but much cheered by the idea that he might have a bit of sanity leave at home before the actual transplant. And bummed that he needs reading glasses.

Steve's Mother