Kristine finally started her chemo late last night after receiving some news from Dr. Jacoub. The doctor wanted to hold off on her chemo until he had the results of her bone marrow biopsy. The test results showed she had more than 15% leukemia cells present in her marrow. This, of course, was very upsetting to us all. So Kristine is undergoing a seven day chemo regimen.
In the meantime, the doctor wants us sisters tested immediately. He said as soon as Kristine is back in remission, they want to get her transplant done as soon as possible. So test kits are being Fedex'd out to each sister so that they can get those processed right away.
If for some unfortunate reason my sisters and I are not a match for Kristine, she will need to go to the National Donor Registry. We learned yesterday that Kristine's best chance for a match from the National Donor Registry is from someone of the same ethnic background. So we are asking all of our friends and family who are half-Japanese/half-caucasian or if they know anyone who is of this same ethnic make-up, to go get themselves registered as donors at http://www.marrow.org/ ASAP. Even if you're not of the same ethnic background, please consider becoming a donor anyway. There are so many people who don't realize how easy it is to become a blood stem cell and bone marrow donor. Medical technology has come a long way and it's a simple blood donation, not a painful bone marrow extraction as once practiced.
Kristine will be hospitalized for 7-8 days and will likely be released from the hospital next Friday. She will need to be especially careful as her immune system will be compromised. She will need to exercise extreme caution with what she eats and who/what she's exposed to. Plus she will be battling all the side effects of her chemo. The doctor said it is imperative that Kristine NOT get any type of infection.
Once again, thank you for all the love, support and prayers for our sister. We truly appreciate everything everyone has done for our sister and continues to do for her.
A big shout out to Sharla, Sugar & Viv for the care packages Kristine received in the mail!! Kristine says thank you so much!!
Please consider becoming a marrow donor and continue to pray for Kristine.
It's an inspiration seeing today...the love you have for your family is your strength. I texted Dave and offered, me and my wife Cherrie our services if you need a babysitter for Kahlen & Logan. My hours are 8-6 mon,tues,thurs,fri. and Cherrie has the weekends off. We were not able to have children however we have plenty of experience the last 22 years of our marriage with niece's, nephews, being godparents. The majority of the times we would see our friends children more than our friends :-). I've been texting all my Hapa friends and relatives to be marrow donor. I want to share a video I made for my sister Chona when I first learned of her cancer. http://youtu.be/IA6rXs2z0Bc
ReplyDeleteI think you are the only half Japanese person I know but I will go to Facebook now to spread the word. I really hope to be able to see you at the end of this month!
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