Well…more good news today!
The HLA test results are in and it turns out my mother’s brother is a perfect match. We are overjoyed.
At the back of our minds though is the niggling little fact that my uncle has had Parkinson’s disease for a few years now (he’s just over 70). The doctor doesn’t seem to think it will be a problem but admitted he wasn’t entirely sure and that we will need to ask a transplant specialist rather than a strict hematologist/oncologist, which is what he is.
Parkinson’s is clearly a separate beast altogether–being a disease of the brain/nervous system–and it’s really my uncle’s immune system we’re most interested in. Still, given that science hasn’t yet explained the origins/mechanisms of PD, we can’t really shake the doubt that my mother just might trade her leukemia for PD, or that the PD might somehow make the transplant less effective…
Anybody know anything about what makes a good donor for a mini-transplant, in addition to HLA-compatibility?
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