Chemo has officially started

She’s started her chemo today. I have a lot of people asking me what’s happening, how long we’ll be here etc.

The answer is that the chemo is starting, It will go for about 5 days. Then we wait. The chemo kills off all her immune system as well as the cancer, so after her numbers come back up they will test her to see if she is in remission. (this takes approx. 4 weeks) If so and we have a viable bone marrow donor, then they will do the transplant. If she is in remission, but there is NOT a viable donor, then they will do a second round…approx. same time frame. IF she is NOT in remission, donor or not, we do another round of chemo and another month of waiting..(this will continue until she is in remission) Then once we get a donor and the transplant is done, we wait….again probably about a month.

So the best case scenario is she finishes this round, in the next 2 weeks we are notified her brother is a match and he’s willing/able to donate, or they go to the registry and find a match. After her 4 weeks of healing is up we find out she’s in remission, get the transplant and a month later take her home. What are the chances this will go exactly like that. Not very likely, but please pray for the best. 🙂

A lot of people are asking how they can get tested to see if they are a match. This is really weird and we had to have them explain this to us several times in detail because it seems so weird. First, the chances of any family or friend being a match is extremely low and insurance only pays to test full blooded siblings. If that is not a match they go straight to the registry. The tests are expensive so insurance pushes this…that being said if you are interested in being tested and considered, please go to Bethematch.org and get tested. You may be considered to save the life of someone elses child, but wouldn’t that be an incredible gift? (on a side note: I joined this several years ago, but i’ve never been contacted). If by chance you are a match to Danielle, that would be flagged quite quickly and they would contact you immediately.

Thank you for your love and support during this tough time, we appreciate it more than any of you can possibly imagine.

-Trina