Things are progressing with my transplant evaluations. I will be 100% done by the end of January, assuming there aren't any complications or other problems. (knock on wood) This is an exciting time!

Just in time for Christmas, I got a great present today, via an email from my mother:

Hi!

It is a winter day in Colorado, complete with a little snow and plenty of cold weather... I got a phone call from Diane Angelidis [the living donor coordinator at LifeLink] last week and she said I was a very good match for you. [Your brother] Andrew's blood was still in the lab being tested.

Hope you and Ken are doing okay. Have a fun trip to Arizona. Merry Christmas!
Love,
Mom & Dad

Wow! I was honestly thinking my mom might not be a match (I've always thought of myself as being more 'genetically' like my father's side of the family, for some reason) so what a pleasant surprise to find out she is a "very good" match! Of course, in my excitement I tried to reach the coordinator to find out exactly what a "very good match" means, only to find out she's gone on vacation until after New Years. So, I will have to wait at least a couple more weeks to find out exactly what it means. We're also waiting on my brother's bloodwork to see if he is also a match - he might be a better donor if he matches simply because of his age, but I will just have to wait and see how it goes.

What a wonderful Christmas present!