Dreams

It's that time again... time for an update: 

Phyllis is doing well and in fact, just had a birthday! It just so happens that my fiancee and I got engaged on her birthday a couple years ago (before we even knew her! - Crazy, right?!)

She and I speak regularly, maybe 2-3 times per week. We both wish we lived closer but sometimes life and circumstances just get in the way. Hopefully we will be able to see each other sometime this year? Personally, I think Americans work too hard and don't get enough vacation days :p I'd be fine taking a month or two without pay so I could travel. Ahh, I'll keep dreaming. :)

Serenity

Update

I can't believe it's been just shy of a year since the last time I have posted!

Phyllis is doing wonderful and we talk regularly. I flew out to see her in June I think it was? Then I took a trip across country this past summer and made a stop along the way to see her. We live so far apart but we were lucky enough to have several opportunities to meet up. 

She has had some minor graft vs host type complications but from what I've been told, it's a fairly common thing. Yay for being healthy :)

Phyllis

Well, the one year mark from the donation came and went. I sent Lee my info out right away but considering the lag between NMDP and such, I assumed I wouldn't hear much for a while. To my surprise, within a couple days I received an email directly from my recipient! Her name is Phyllis and she lives almost completely on the other side of the country. We have been emailing back and forth since then and it has been such an awesome experience. I look forward to hearing from her and always smile when I see an email from her pop up in my inbox.

She's doing well and I've even gotten to speak with some of her family members too. She's an amazing woman and I so look forward to getting to meet her and her family and finally give her the hug I've been holding onto for her for over a year now. 

I cannot believe how much things have changed in over a year. I looked back at some of my older posts and was reminded to keep counting my blessings. 

Wonderful News!

A little over a week ago I received a letter from my recipient saying that she's doing really well. She was released from the transplant facility before day 100 and actually could have gone home sooner than she did but her family was sick so they didn't want to risk it. She also said she was looking forward to meeting me and being able to hug me and thank me in person.

As everyone can imagine, I was so excited to get this letter - it truly means the world to me and I'm eagerly counting down until the 1 year mark in November :)

Engrafted Stem Cells!

I received a phone call on Friday with some news about my recipient. The stem cells have engrafted so she's making my blood cells now! She is doing well and was discharged from the hospital which is great news!

Merry Christmas!

One More Week!

The donation is exactly one week away from today!

It really hit me yesterday because Lee mentioned that he'd be mailing the injections which will start on Saturday and then he emailed me a hotel confirmation number for Tuesday evening. I live about an hour away from the hospital that the donation is taking place at so we'll stay over at a hotel near the hospital so we won't have to get up so early on the morning of.

I sent my recipient a letter in the mail Monday but it has to go through Lee first. He'll get the letter and make sure it doesn't contain any identifying information and then he'll pass it on to her, wherever she is.

I've been thinking about her a lot and thinking about what she's going through as she begins preparation for the transplant. All that I know is that she'll be receiving chemo and/or radiation to basically destroy her immune system so her body can accept my stem cells without rejecting them. The NMDP website has information on what the patient will experience in preparation of receiving the transplant which can be found here: http://marrow.org/Patient/Transplant_Process/The_Preparative_Regimen.aspx

I know I've previously talked about my mother working in an oncology office and spoke of the many patients, that turned into friends, that lost their battle with cancer. When I think about my recipient, I picture her being every single one of those people I once knew. I picture them all getting the second chance at life that they all deserved and the thought warms my heart. I hope I make them proud.

Let's get physical!

Friday was the big day! Well, one of the big days.

I went to the hospital to have the physical done. I got there and got to meet the doctor and she talked to me a little bit about the process. She asked me a lot of questions pertaining to my health and she took a thorough health history. After all of the questions, they drew more blood. They took 9 tubes, 2 of those tubes were going to be sent out and stored for that one consent form that I signed allowing them to do so. They told me that the recipients get so much more blood drawn though... something like 12 tubes. Crazy. I think this was a repeat infectious disease test because they wanted to make sure I didn't contract anything since I had the test done before.

The doctor looked at my veins briefly and then had the apheresis nurse, who would be putting the needles in, take a look as well and they both seemed to think that a line in the femoral vein would be best because I have such small veins. This isn't something I'm really crazy about doing but it will probably be better. On the day of the donation, I'll receive my last shot of filgrastim in the morning, then they have to wait an hour before doing the donation after the injection so between the shot and the wait, a vascular surgeon will insert the line. Like I said, I'm really not crazy about the idea, but it is what it is. At least with this, I won't have needles in my arms.

After the blood was drawn, I got an EKG. It took longer to put the leads on than to do the actual EKG itself so the girl that was putting the leads on chatted with me for a while. I'm guessing she knew I was a donor when she looked at my chart so she started talking about it and said how awesome it was. I can't remember how it came up, but she didn't know that I don't actually know the recipient so when she found this out she thought it was the greatest thing. She kept thanking me for what I was doing and the doctor thanked me as well. I wasn't quite sure how to respond because I'm not doing it to get recognition or thank yous, I'm doing it so this woman can have another chance at life... another chance at having a family, a chance to reconcile relationships, a chance at doing something she always wanted to do but never did... like traveling or learning another language. I'm doing it because it's the right thing to do and it's something that I hope someone else would be willing to do for me if I needed it. It was hard to know what to say to that.

Anyway, after the EKG, I went and received a chest x-ray. That didn't take very long either. I was supposed to go and see where I'd be doing the donation but it was already so late in the day by the time I had finished with everything so I didn't get to see it. I figure that I'll be spending a good 6-8 hours there in a few weeks so I'll get a really good look at it then. :p

Once the day was coming to a close, I received a phone call from Lee. He was checking on me to see how the day had gone and how everything else was going. I have to say that they have been so awesome at the NMDP and they have been there every step of the way.

Before I end this tonight, I'm curious how other donors have responded to these thanks and what their reasons for signing up to be a donor were/are. Please share your experiences and responses, I'd really love to hear them!