Gathering before Nancy's marrow transplant

Friends,

We are having a gathering at our home in Fairfax next Sunday morning, April 3rd at 11:30am, so that we can share a ritual for Nancy and her sister Janet. Janet will be donating the stem cells that Nancy will receive in about two weeks to restore and re-create her immune system. The ritual will be to support both of them through the coming weeks.

If you would like to attend, please send me an email (just me, not the whole list!) to RSVP.

Please get here on time, as we will close the front door and post a note at noon, when the ritual begins, so we can complete it without interruption. We will finish by 1pm. Also, bring a candle that can burn for an hour, and stand on it's own, without dripping. Something like a votive or a small container candle would be perfect. You will be taking it home with you when you leave.

We will be serving brunch afterwards, as a gesture of appreciation for all of your support over the last months.

With love,

Tom and Nancy

(address info deleted)

Transplant is scheduled!

Hi, friends.

Here we go, our next couple of months have become clear. Nancy's sister Janet will be the bone marrow donor. We *finally* got final test results today, and she has the right kind of compatibility to donate stem cells to Nancy.

Nancy will be going back into UCSF Medical Center for the marrow transplant on April 4th. She will be in the hospital for 4 weeks, then home completing her recovery and integration of the transplant for some months afterward. This is a procedure with some risk, as she will get intensive chemotherapy to wipe out her existing bone marrow (and leukemia cells) and she will be accepting a new immune system into her body.

We are planning a gathering and ritual at our house for Sunday April 3rd. I'll send more info as we get organized.

With love,

-tdc

The Great Wait, Act V

Friends,

Just a short note to let you know that all is proceeding according to plan Nothing is happening :-)

Nancy came home almost two weeks ago, and went right back to work. She's getting checkups every week at the UCSF outpatient clinic, and we're waiting for a marrow donor match. They did not get her tissue type info while she was in the hospital (she didn't have any white blood cells, so there was nothing to type) but did provide the blood for typing last week. So we should know if she matches her brother or sister soon, and if not, the search for a marrow donor will go world-wide.

We're getting in some walks, and she's been getting her strength and muscle tone back steadily. In the mean time, she's at the clinic this morning, getting a marrow biopsy, which is never any fun.

Stay tuned for Act VI, where our heroine finds out who her marrow donor will be!

-tdc