Philly Positive

Ok-so now I am going to back track a bit and bring you back to where we left off after 4NT. I mentioned earlier that Vanessa would need to find out if she tested positive for the Philadelphia chromosome. She did, in fact, test positive. Unfortunately, this was not a good diagnosis. If she had tested negative for the PH chrom. she most likely would not have had to have a stem cell transplant. I'm sure many of you don't even know what makes the PH chrom. , let alone what it is. In simple terms it is when a person's DNA #9 and #22 split and then join each other.

After we found out this sad information the next hill to climb was to find out if I was Vanessa's match for the stem cell transplant. Being her only sibling I would have a 25% chance of being a match. Anyone else is about 1:1,000,000,00. If I was her match this would speed up the process of the actual transplant. She would undergo the transplant late Dec. early Jan. If I was not her match then because of the typing and consent of a non-related donor it would be set back to late Jan. early Feb. Sadly, we found out that I was not her match. I took this VERY hard! Luckily, she is a blonde haired, blue eyed, Caucasian female, so her chances of finding a non-related donor are very high. Her doctors have already told her they have found matches, and now they are doing all the nitty gritty work to see if and when the unrelated donor would be able help. This whole process can take up to six weeks.

It was very humbling to see how many of mine and Vanessa's friend reached out after they heard that I was not her match. Dozens of people ordered the "kit" to become part of the bone marrow registry in hopes of being a match for Vanessa. If any of you who read this would like to get on the registry to possibly help someone someday you can go to http://marrow.org/Home.aspx to find out further info. You could save someone's life! :)

Here is a medical definition of the PH chromosome:
Philadelphia chromosome (Ph): An abnormality of chromosome 22 in which part of chromosome 9 is transferred to it.

http://www.cancer.gov/PublishedContent/MediaLinks/380277.html