Giving the gift of life...

The night before we were to move into our new house I received a message from my mom to call her. I didn't know what it was about, I just knew that she had some information to share with me. She had received a voicemail from someone from the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP) who was trying to track me down. They had said in the message that I was a bone marrow match for a 6 yr. old boy. At the time she told me I was pretty overwhelmed with closing on our house that day and the thought of moving in the next day. My first reaction was why a 6 year old, why can't it be a 60 year old. Then I said it doesn't matter and I would definitely hope that someone would do the same for Madison if she were to ever need anything like that. 

You may be asking how I got involved with with NMDP. Well, it all goes back to my babysitter, Darlene Murphy whom I spent a lot of time with her family as I was growing up. When I was in college Darlene developed leukemia and ended up passing away while she was waiting for a bone marrow transplant. While working at the Red Cross we had an NMDP office and I decided to become a donor so that someone could have a chance to live a little longer. I never thought that I would be a match because I have B+ blood type which is somewhat rare.

I made contact with the person with the NMDP to find out what I needed to. I was asked a number of questions and then they set me up to have blood drawn to do more tests to determine if I still was really a match. My blood was sent off to the transplant center so that they could see how my blood with interact with the recipients blood. They told me that the testing would take 8 weeks to confirm. I received the call this morning that I am officially THE match. So, now I have to have more blood drawn and a physical done. The NMDP center that I have been talking with is in Cleveland Ohio and they are in the process of transferring my case to a transplant center in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. The recipient transplant center would like my bone marrow procedure completed days before Christmas, but more than likely it will not happen due to hospital schedules already being booked.

The procedure will be an outpatient surgery and they actually remove the bone marrow through the hip and not through the back like I thought they did. They suggest taking the next day off from work! 

So, that's what's happening with me! I will try and provide an update once I know more.