Bone Marrow Registry - Be The Match!

Rumor has it that you can join the National Marrow Donor Program's marrow registry for FREE until July 31st! I'm not 100% sure that this will work, but it's worth a shot. As some of you already know, joining the registry is painless and you are not required to donate marrow if asked (although I'm not sure why you'd join unless you intended to donate if needed); it's a choice you can make if and when the situation arises. No blood, no needles - you literally swab the inside of your cheek with a Q-tip and send it back to the registry. I'm not going to lie and say that the actual donation process is painless, but as you all know, it's WORTH IT to save someone's life. So here's the skinny:

Go to http://www.marrow.org/JOIN/index.html and click on "Join Now". Continue the application until you are prompted for a promo or coupon code (I haven't seen the actual application, so I'm not sure when this happens in the process), and then enter:

CM729

Like I said, I'm not sure if this will actually work, or if there's a limited number of free kits that they're sending out, or really what the deal is, but even if the promo code doesn't work it's only $52 to join (I say "only" like it's pocket change, but I do realize it's expensive). And if all else fails, you can join for free at a marrow drive near you. Go to http://www.marrow.org/JOIN/Join_in_Person/index.html and enter your zip code in the box and click "find a drive" and it will show you all of the marrow drives in your immediate area.

BMT - it's not just a sandwich anymore (you know, Basil, Mozzarella and Tomato)! Tasty, tasty BMTs!

In other news, no news! I feel better every single day - we've been cooking, taking evening walks (the fireflies are coming out, very cool), seeing friends, and getting our lives back to normal at home. My counts are great and everything looks like it's coming along well. My biopsy is this Thursday, and then I have an appointment with Dr. Smith on Monday - I don't know if my results will be back by then, but I guess if they're not I'll just go in again later in the week and see him or my nurse practitioner for the good news (because it's GOING TO BE good news). Yeah I'm nervous for the results - if there's anything I've learned from this whole experience it's that you NEVER KNOW what's going to happen next. But I just don't see how I can be feeling so wonderful and have such great blood counts and NOT be rid of the stupid leukemia.

So that's it - I haven't been blogging lately because I really don't have any news, and I also have apparently run out of funny and/or profound things to say. :) I have a few pictures to upload, but bless Verizon's heart - their network does NOT work well in our house and I can't send the photos to my email. So they'll have to wait.

Daisy Mae and Fitzy send shout-outs to everyone, they're really happy to have their mama back in bed with them.

That's all I've got. I'm peace-ing out!

ETA: Please see Lynn Treadwell's comment below - she clarifies the Be The Match registration process and explains the fees. Thank you Lynn!