It's Negative!

Sorry for the lack of posting lately.  We have been a little busy these last few days.  We moved into Kirk's mom's basement and cleaned out the townhome.  Kirk came last night so we are finally together.  We will have to move our stuff from the truck to a storage unit when the truck gets here.  We think that the truck will be here sometime later in the week.  If anyone feels like helping move the contents out of the truck to a storage unit just let us know.  We hope that our house sells fast so we can finally feel some sense of normalcy. 

Now for the really good news.  We have been waiting for the results of the bone marrow biopsy.  The hospital called this morning telling us that it is negative.  What that means is that she can get the transplant from her not from the donor.  It is such a releif to know that she won't have so many complications after the transplant. 

She has to go in this week to have 2 tests before they can start the process of the transplant.  From what we know now she will have to have a shot for 3 days to boost her white blood cells.  After the shot she will go into the clinic everyday to collect her blood.  This has changed since the last time I told you about the transplant.  There are two ways to get the bone marrow, the first way is taking the marrow like a bone marrow biopsy where they put a huge needle in her back and drill it into the bone and suction out the marrow.  The second way is taking her blood out of her through her central line.  It is like a transfusion but reverse.  Apparently the reason that it has been changed is because all of the literature out there says that taking her blood through the central line has better results than the bone marrow biopsy source.  Alyssa is more excited about doing it through her central line than the biopsy way.  She will just have to go up to the clinic for 3 or 4 days and lay in a bed for 3 hours while they draw her blood and run it through a spinning machine. 

We have to go see the doctor on Thursday for a meeting to explain more about what we are doing next.  After that meeting I will let you know more.  We are so excited that we are finally together as a family and that the test came out negative!