Sunday, November 25, 2007

I'm still here

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving holiday. I had a great lunch with my family and we even got to see a little bit of snow.

Everything has been going very well for me. Every Monday I go for lab work and so far they have all looked good. I finally feel like myself again. As far as the donor search, things are finally starting to look up. I got word that 3 people have made appointments for additional blood work. Once the blood samples arrive in Dallas it will take 2-3 weeks to determine if anyone will be a perfect match for me. I feel good that one of them will be my donor. I am still waiting to find out if I will have another round of chemo before my transplant. Since it has been over a month since I left the hospital and the donor search is taking longer than we thought, I might need more chemo to make sure I stay in remission. This round is much easier because I will only have to be in the hospital for a week and I get to recover at home. I hope to know something this week if that is going to happen.

Thanks for checking on me.

Wednesday, November 7, 2007

How to be a donor

Sorry it has taken me so long to update with the information on how to become a donor. All this information comes from the National Marrow Donor Program's website www.marrow.org. It is a good resource for information about the donation process. When you go to the website click on the tab How You Can Help and then click on Join the Registry. You can join online or in person at any of the donation centers listed below.

The Blood Center of Central Texas
4300 North Lamar Boulevard
Austin, TX 78765-4679
(512) 206-1242

Baylor University Medical Center NMDP Donor Center
3409 Worth Street Suite 600, Sammons Tower
Dallas, TX 75246-2029
(214) 820-4279 (800) 4-BAYLOR
http://www.baylorhealth.com

Carter Blood Care
2110 Research Row Suite 613
Dallas, TX 75235
(214) 217-5663 (800) DONATE-4
http://www.nmdpdallas.org

Cook Children's
801 Seventh Avenue
Fort Worth, TX 76104-2733
(682) 885-7562 (800) 643-2448

Baylor College of Medicine Donor Center
1 Baylor Plaza M.S. BCM-285, Room 672E
Houston, TX 77030-3411
(713) 798-3360

South Texas Blood and Tissue Center
6211 IH 10 West
San Antonio, TX 78201-2023
(210) 731-5555 (800) 292-5534
http://www.southtexasblood.org


Thursday, November 1, 2007

Sorry it's been so long

Since I have been home not a lot of exciting things have been going on. I do a lot of reading, sleep late and watch tv. Not all that interesting.

Mom and I made the drive to Dallas to meet the transplant doctor. He is a really nice man. He answered all my questions as best as he could and spent about 45 minutes with us. He made me feel better about the whole process. I feel good about him as my doctor. I also got to meet my search coordinator. She is very nice and is working hard to find my donor. We still have no time line on when the transplant is going to take place. I think that is the hardest part. I want to know when this is going to happen so I can start my new life. After transplant I will have a brand new immune system. Because of that I will have a better chance of staying in remission for a very long time.

I did find out that donating bone marrow is much easier than it use to be. You don't have to go thru what I do and have it extracted from the bone. Now they hook you up to a machine that will take the blood and run it thru a machine to extract the cells and then the blood will be put back into your body. This way you have no recovery time. I have the information if anyone would like to be a part of the National Bone Marrow Registry. You might not be able to help me, but you may be able to save another person's life.