An update from us is long overdue, so we are sending a Thanksgiving hello to let you know that you’re in our thoughts and to share the latest news on Jonathan.

December is going to be a big month – Jonathan turns 0 on December 8^th.  Yep, his stem cell transplant date is finally set for the 8^th and we plan to follow tradition and celebrate the big day with a Day Zero birthday party for his new cells.  We were at Hopkins today signing the consent for the clinical trial, making everything officially official.

But before we get into the specifics of what the next weeks and months will look like, we want to take a minute to thank all of you again for your amazing support this year.  Friends and kind strangers alike came together in the most tremendous way to help us with our bone marrow donor drives across the country in June and July. So many of you got swabbed and donated time, energy and money to the cause to help not only Jonathan but other blood cancer patients as well.  The drives were incredibly successful – Team Haupt registered thousands of potential new donors, raised a tremendous amount of donations for DKMS and Gift of Life and helped to spread the word about how simple it is to get tested to become a bone marrow donor. And while a fully matched donor for Jonathan was not found through all of these efforts, we’ve been told that to date 4 other patients have potentially found donors thanks to our drives.

As for Jonathan, he will be getting his magic donation of stem cells from his lovely sister, Lynne, who is a half match. The transplant is part of a clinical trial at Hopkins using a procedure called a “mini haplo” that Hopkins pioneered 5 years ago. Beginning this Wednesday, he’ll undergo another week of chemo (outpatient this time) and a round of total body irradiation to suppress his immune system before the transplant. The transplant itself will be done in the outpatient unit at Hopkins– he’ll get Lynne’s bone marrow transfused through an IV over several hours and then gets to head home to recoup once it’s done.  The process is really similar to getting an infusion of blood. Pretty amazing.

The first 60-100 days after transplant are high-risk ones for infection, especially with it being flu season, so Jonathan will have to come to Hopkins for treatment every day and will need to be careful about being around lots of people for several months. Then we basically wait for the transplant to take, or ‘graft.’ We will keep everyone posted on how he’s doing here at  TeamHaupt.org, so please check back regularly to see how he’s doing and to send your encouragement. We also plan to continue to work to spread the word about other patients searching for their bone marrow matches and to host more Team Haupt events in the new year to help find a leukemia cure.

We know we have a tough several months ahead of us, but we are feeling very optimistic. We’re so thankful for your continued support and laughter online and off. Happy holidays with love to our entire extended family!