As of last week, have a tentative date for Mac's transplant! Let me stress tentative, because it's dependent on so many factors falling into place. Mac has 2 matched unrelated donors who have agreed to donate their bone marrow, and some of this is dependent on them passing everything on their end and agreeing to the timeline. We know the first choice is a 23 year old male who lives in the US. All he knows about us is Mac is an 18 year old male with aplastic anemia. So Mac and I will go to Memphis May 31 and do about 2 weeks of preliminary tests - they will test every inch of his body and get baselines. (I remember these from 2009 when we thought we were going to transplant... eyes, ears, lungs, bones, heart, etc. Nothing is left out!) Then on June 14 he will get admitted to the transplant floor for 8 days of chemo and radiation. Day 0 (the day he gets his new bone marrow) will be June 23. After that, there will be more immune suppressing medicines (this time suppressing the new bone marrow from attacking his organs) and we wait for it to engraft. If all goes well, he will be discharged sometime about a month later. We will go to the Target House in Memphis for several more months, and day 100 will be the ticket for us to come back home to New Orleans. Certain parameters will have to be met by then, and if they are, he will not need to be checked as frequently. I haven't gotten this schedule in the mail, which means it's all tentative (and even if I get the firm schedule, things can change!) But after years of knowing this was on the horizon, it's good to have a plan.

Mac has been fine with this so far, he's joking about once he loses his hair, he may choose to keep shaving it and stay bald but grow a long beard! I guess it's good he's a boy and doesn't care much about hair! He's excited about graduation, and we are very proud of him for all he has accomplished. He's got some great friends who know what he's facing and who will help keep his spirits up during the yucky times.

I'm going to be switching to a caringbridge site for the transplant, so I'll put the link on facebook and this blog when I get that up. Thanks for reading, and keeping us in your prayers! I keep thinking about the young donor, and pray he passes his medical tests, and is at peace with what he's doing. It's kind of cool that if he ends up being the donor, he was not old enough to be on the registry 7 years ago, and now he is and is a perfect match for Mac. Maybe there was a reason we rode this roller coaster so long before committing to transplant...