Today Annie had a hemoglobin transfusion and we finalized our plan for a transplant date. After collecting all our statistics and having the weigh-in from various sectors, we have decided to go ahead and try for a May 13th date for hospitalizing Annie to begin her transplant process. Of course our plans are meaningless with this condition and we can only hope that things work out. Annie's donor has graciously agreed to the new date.
There are protocols to donating bone marrow and both us and the donor are not permitted to know each other until a year after transplant and even then it is a careful process. Based on stories from friends with donors this person often becomes a significant person in your life. Tom, Annie and I have all had our DNA typed for match purposes and we had to give our ethnic breakdown. To our knowledge we were a mutt-mix of Northern European countries. We also believe Annie's donor is European.
But this is where the intrigue comes in. Annie inherited one VERY rare allele from Tom. So rare that there is statistically no chance she'll get a 10/10 donor and our 9/10 is the best we can hope for. Well this rare allele is only statistically present in the people of Colombia in South America! Sounds to us like we've unearthed something fishy in Tom's family tree. You can bet we'll be doing a lot of speculating when we get together with family this Christmas. Next scheduled appointment is in three weeks. Thanks to all our support system and best wishes for the holidays.
