Dec 8

 "Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything." - James 1:2-4

My mom met with the bone marrow doctor yesterday. He was really positive. Basically he said the transplant is something that the doctors can't say 100% yes she should do it. However, with her type of lymphoma, it often relapses after people achieve remission. So, they believe her best shot at getting rid of it forever is to have the transplant after she finishes chemo. He said they have had good results by doing it this way and not waiting until the cancer relapses because then it becomes harder to treat.

They do have potential matches in the registry for her, which is great news. Now we are just hoping that at least one will be a perfect match and that the donors are still willing to give their cells. We definitely will still be doing the bone marrow drives because we want to make sure that other people can find matches as well and add as many people as possible to the registry. Over 10,000 people need a transplant and only half will get one. This number includes babies, children and adults. The next steps of them determining matches will be to have their potential matches come in and have a blood test done to see if they have at least 7 out of 8 things that match my mom's tissue. 8/8 would be the best case scenario.

My mom is beginning chemo again today. She is actually almost done. My dad just told me that her oncologist said they are very pleased with how she is doing and her LDH is back to normal, which is a good sign. This is the outpatient part, and she will be coming home once she is done and returning tomorrow, Sunday (for a white blood cell shot), and then again on Monday. We will be praying that she does not get a fever and can remain at home until her next treatment, which is on December 19th. That treatment is only supposed to be 2 days inpatient and we are REALLY HOPING she will be home by Christmas. But we know the most important thing is that she get the chemo and get rid of the lymphoma! Either way, we will be together on Christmas.

God is truly present in our lives each day, from the amazing people we meet to the small signs He gives us. We feel Him acting all the time! He is keeping us all strong, and I know there is a purpose for all of this. We will persevere!!