We're Going to Transplant!!

That's right!  Sam's doctors are very pleased with his last PET scan, and are recommending we move forward with transplant.  He's not in complete remission, but he's about 80% there, and his entire medical team is in agreement that now is the time to act before the lymphoma has a chance to start growing again.  Things are still going well with our donor.  Please, please continue to pray for her over the next week as she rearranges her life for a complete stranger.

Starting next week, Sam will be given 11 rounds of full body radiation followed by one last whopping dose of chemo.  The plan is to eradicate every last cancer cell before rebooting his body back up with the donor's new immune system.  As a reminder, Sam will be receiving stem cells that have been extracted from the donor's blood.  Embryonic stem cells will not be used at any time during the transplant.  There is an outrageously long list of potential side effects and a survival rate of 40%, but that's not where our focus is.  We know the threat of graft-versus-host disease is very real, but his doctors will be taking every precaution to prevent it, and if it does occur they have many methods of treating it.

And yes.  Of course we're scared.  This is the part where we take a deep breath and put our faith in Sam's medical team and trust in God's plan for our lives.

Here we are, exactly one year ago today, a few hours after Sam was officially diagnosed.