Significantly improved survival rates for stem cell transplant recipients

Significantly improved survival rates for stem cell transplant recipients

I love when these updated reports come out!  These are definitely not the statistics I was first quoted so this makes me smile!

Still Fighting,
Katie

Life is good.

Only 9 more days of school for Ryan and Rachel! I'm very excited for summer, probably more so than they are! First of all, I will be going to New York and that in itself is so exciting! I can check something off the bucket list and meet Lorenzo! I'm ready to relax from all the school activities and spend some quality time with the kids. I hope we can find lots of cool things to get into this summer! I'm very excited to report that in March, I was offered an opportunity to share my personal information with my bone marrow donor! They make you wait two years to share personal information with over seas donors and that two years was up in March. I filled out all the paperwork and hoped that he would do the same on his end. I think for me, it would have been okay either way because I know the choice people make to do something like this is a very personal one and some choose to remain anonymous. I knew that I had already had the opportunity to thank him via letter, but there is just something so different about actually knowing who you are thanking and being able to say it directly to them, even if it is just an email. I was elated when I received a call from Baylor last week letting me know that my donor had agreed to release his information to me. I couldn't believe that I would finally have the chance to say my thank you directly to him. From that phone call, I still had to wait a few days until the "official" paperwork came in but I had already waited two years so a few more days was no big deal. There have been so many times I've thought about exactly what I would say if ever given the chance, but I have to say that when that time did come, I was at a complete loss for words haha. I mean, what do you say? I was just genuinely and simply honored to say thank you to him and that has really brought this whole journey full circle for me. I feel so happy and so complete today. I have my two beautiful children who are happy and healthy, my family is still so supportive of me, my sister is going to have twins in October, my other sister is one of my best friends and now I have another name I can add to my prayer list each night. Life is so good. Thank you donor for making all this possible. Still Fighting, Katie