Call For Bone Marrow Donors

This is a very complete description on how to join the bone marrow donor registry in the United States. This is urgent for many people around the world.

Here is the link for the National Bone Marrow Registry, marrow.org

Holding Pattern

I'm back to the ol' holding pattern, fending off pain and waiting for my doctors to give me appointments. I have to admit, I'm not pushing much and just letting things happen in a relaxed fashion. I just feel a little lost. I had just graduated to not quite being followed by my doctors like I could self combust at any moment. I just really want to be left alone.

Avoiding the doctors though, would mean surgery and other nasty things in the future. I try my best to be a good little patient but really I want to run away and never go back. That's not too helpful to my body so I have to suck it up.

I made a list the night before last, of all the symptoms that have come back. Dry eyes, vaginal pain, peeling lips, all over body pain, arthritic pain and a spastic bowel. I'm wondering now if the body pain is actually a symptom of the graft vs host? It came back suddenly and at the same time as everything else.

So, just waiting....

Super Freak -Photopalooza Day #?

My friends have always told me I was crazy. They thought I was a germ freak because I don't touch doorhandles with my bare hands etc. When I did janitorial at a young age I realized that thousands of hands touch those mall doorhandles every day. Later on in university I was getting sick a lot because everyone brought their germs to school.

I read on article on hand washing and how germs are actually spread, and WHAMMO, I was armed with knowledge! I got sick very little in those years. Today I don't know if that knowledge saved my life or delayed my diagnosis because I didn't catch most germs going around.

My habits turned out helpful, because when I had chemo, they didn't need to teach me how to protect myself, I already did it by instinct. Now to add to that, I also have a huge list of types of food I can't eat and places I can't eat at. I'm not allowed to have soft serve ice cream, fake crab or anything from a street vendor. I don't touch things behind deli glass or that are made with mayo.

A couple of days ago I bought a spinach dip from my local high end grocery store. Yeesh. What a mistake. I was very ill for the last couple of days. At least now I can get validation from my friends who think I'm a crazy, germaphobe.

I'm on the mend now and I feel alright today. My poor body.

Speaking of crazy, bodies and all that, I thought I would post photos of my stem cell donor. I call him Donor Dave.

My brother, who is a little bit of a goof ball, saved my life. His cells are my cells and I have his DNA. Hello crime spree!

He may look like a man of no fears here wearing my wigs, but he in fact is terrified of needles and hospital procedures.

He went ahead anyway and spent a week donating his precious little cells for me!

The chances of finding a donor match among your siblings is %25, and with him being my only sibling, it was nerve wracking waiting to find out. Something deep inside me told me he would be a match. Since then I have seen large families find out there were no matches for them. One was a friend of mine, Connie.

At my Graduation party, before my bone marrow transplant, I gave him this shirt and the funky crown. Three cheers for donor Dave!

I kid and I call him my spare parts guy...he has two perfectly good kidneys.

I guess I come by the crazy, honestly.