Stem Cell Transplant

[brewcity77]

Great news Dish! Sending all my positive vibes to you and Bradley!

[MU Fan in Connecticut]

His shirt says it all.....SUPER KID

Was thinking the same thing.

[GooooMarquette]

Very happy for you and your family.  We are pulling for Bradley!

[Spaniel with a Short Tail]

Good to hear. Blessings to you and your family.

[jficke13]

Keep putting Ws on the board every day. God bless.

[nathanziarek]

That picture absolutely breaks my heart. I'm sure I'm not that strong.

Keep fighting. Thoughts are with you, Bradley!

[jsglow]

Great news.  That SuperMan shirt was right on. MVP performance.

[drewm88]

Love the positive updates. Keep em coming.

[muwarrior69]

This is great news....better than winning a National Champisonship.

[2TimeWarrior]

Continued prayers coming your way!

[CTWarrior]

So happy for the great news!  Continued prayers and best wishes!

[connie]

Just saw the update Dish.  Keep fighting the good fight, and give Superman a hug.

[Sir Lawrence]

Prayers are good.  Donations are good too.  Lets continue to help this lad:

[Dish]

Wanted to say thank you to everyone for all the positive notes/messages. It's weird, I've been in a hospital going on 3 weeks now, and you'd think time goes by slowly, but it's gone by incredibly fast, everything's a blur.

Bradley's at +9 (that's referencing days post transplant). Slight concern that he was doing "too well" (maintaining normal ANC/WBC counts), but over the last 24 hours, he's seen his numbers go down, and is starting to get his butt kicked by mucositis. Sounds weird to say, but we are glad he's starting to get hammered, which means his body is reacting to the transplant, and his sister's cells will start to fully take over soon.

Haven't really had a chance to follow any sports, but hoping the team can give us something to watch with a good run in the BE tourney in a few weeks.

You guys/gals really rock, keeping my fingers crossed for the day we can announce that our family is heading back up to Milwaukee next season for a game, and can shake as many hands as possible with you all.

[Daniel]

Prayers still going up. God bless you all!

[wadesworld]

Praying for the best.

[StillWarriors]

Praying for continued strength, perseverance and perspective for your whole family.

[TAMU, Knower of Ball]

Thoughts and prayers dish

[MUWarrior4Life]

Wonderful News!!!

[mu_hilltopper]

Dish, I've always been curious .. how's the twin sister managing in all this?  I imagine it's an interesting dynamic, having to "save" your brother, the procedure on a healthy child, etc.   

Care to write about that? 

[Dish]

Dish, I've always been curious .. how's the twin sister managing in all this?  I imagine it's an interesting dynamic, having to "save" your brother, the procedure on a healthy child, etc.   

Care to write about that? 

Topper...that's a good question, it's been interesting to tackle as a parent of twins.

This may be stating the obvious, but my son/daughter are fraternal twins. One might be surprised how often we get asked if they are identical, and of course that's physically not possible. In other words, they are brother/sister, who just happened to be born at the same time. The egg did not split, but rather two eggs (if that makes sense).

When we were told my son was high risk, and would eventually need a transplant, everyone in our family got swabbed. Vast majority of the time, parents can not be donors for their own children (Craig Sager & Craig Sager Jr are a rare example of a case where it seemed to work). The odds of Charlie (Bradley's twin sister) and our 7 month old son Camden being donors for Bradley was only 25%.

When you get swabbed to see if you're a match, they check ten different markers to see how you match the patient. Generally speaking, 5 markers matching, one can try a high risk transplant. 7 markers matching are good, better odds. 10 for 10 is a perfect match. Upon hearing Charlie was 10/10, we had the "bonus" that she is the same age, same height, approx same weight, and same blood type. There wasn't a better match on the planet than her.

Since she's only 4, my wife and I debated for a while how to communicate to her what was going on. We were in agreement that we didn't want to pressure her, and at no point did we want to put the thought in her head that she was going to try to save her brother's life. We both felt it was important though to ask her if she was ok with giving Bradley "her blood". We didn't want to force her into this, that didn't feel right.

She was more than happy to help her brother, and did a great job the day of the procedure, and has been doing great physically since. 4 year olds are very resilient, she was running around that night after her procedure, and asked if she could keep her bandage on so she could show her friends at preschool.

We're incredibly lucky, fortunate, blessed that she was there for him. Most people in this position are not, and have to search the donor database and wait for a match. We do not take this for granted, and my goal when this is done is to raise awareness of how easy it is for people to get swabbed to see if they are a donor match for someone else.

[jficke13]

[...]

We're incredibly lucky, fortunate, blessed that she was there for him. Most people in this position are not, and have to search the donor database and wait for a match. We do not take this for granted, and my goal when this is done is to raise awareness of how easy it is for people to get swabbed to see if they are a donor match for someone else.

To the extent that it matters, you succeeded in getting me on the Be the Match registry. It's insanely easy to join and I don't see any reason why everyone that could join doesn't.

[cj111]

This is the best thing I've read all day, or in many days.  Lots of people pulling for you and your family--so happy for you all.

[mu_hilltopper]

Dish might not post this .. but I will:

www.gofundme.com/gzrcnc

Help out a fellow Warrior.