BIG NEWS - One step closer to Fred Hutchinson

I just found out that Tami will be admitted to the transplant hospital the first week of June to begin her pre-transplant health evaluation. If her doctors at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center find she is healthy enough to undergo the transplant her potential donor will then be screened to see if he is healthy enough to donate. If he is deemed eligible and is willing the actual preparation for the transplant will begin.

Overall the odds of the donation moving forward based on these two factors is 50/50.

If everything goes according to plan this is how things are shaping up in the coming weeks:

1. Tami moves to Seattle

2. Tami undergoes and passes her health evaluation.

3. The potential donor undergoes and passes his health evaluation.

4. The transplant will be scheduled.

5. Tami will undergo several rounds of chemo to destroy her damaged bone marrow. The amount of chemo needed varies from 4 to 10 rounds.

6. The donor will begin undergoing the injections that will make his marrow over produced stem cells so that they leave his marrow and enter his blood stream where they can be harvested. The donor will receive back the blood taken minus the extra stem cells.

7. The stem cells are flown to Seattle and Tami receives her transplant.

The entire process will still take several more weeks once Tami has been moved to Seattle. I will try to find out the typical timeline but I wouldn't expect a transplant to take place until late June or possibly even July depending on the hospital's transplant schedule and the donor's availability.

Posted by Stacie (Tami's cousin)