Find Cures. Save Lives
Courage can mean doing something that you know is going to make you uncomfortable, or scared, or is actively painful, and doing it anyway because you have a deep understanding that it is the right thing to do. Monkey showed that sort of courage today.
A couple years ago, Monkey sent for a test kit to see about becoming a blood stem cell donor through the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP). (Formerly known as "Be The Match.") She swabbed the inside of her cheek with a q-tip, and sent it off in the special envelope, not really knowing if anything would ever come of it.
Well, something might come of it.
While Buds and I were in NYC, she received an email indicating she was potentially a match for someone, and would she be available for a phone call to discuss further. She said she was, and got a call right back, and handled an hour long interview/info. session call all by herself.
Testing showed she is a potential match for a 61 y.o. female leukemia patient. NMDP sent a box out with all the necessary bloodwork included, and this morning Monkey and I had an appointment at a hospital here in town to have her blood drawn and sent off for further testing.
Blood draws can be difficult for this redhead. Long time readers might remember the time she turned into a rubber chicken in the phlebotomist's chair at the doctor's office. When it is an option, laying down helps a lot, but that was not an option today, so she settled herself into the chair, took many deep breaths and let the phlebotomist know that blood work can be problematic.
He was a gem. Engaging her in conversation to try and distract her; using a small butterfly needle and hitting a vein on the first stick; drawing the 6 or 7 vials needed as quickly as possible. And Monkey was doing her part, holding my hand; breathing deeply and slowly, talking to him to try and distract herself...
She almost made it.
He had gotten all the vials drawn and even gotten the needle out of her arm when...urp...up came the breakfast smoothie.
Luckily he had a handy garbage can where the unbreakfasting could happen with no mess. Good job, Monkey, not missing!
She stayed in the chair for awhile as he filled out the paperwork and until she was sure she could stand and walk. We had a brief discussion with him where he thanked her for not passing out because then he has extra paperwork to complete.
We stopped at the coffee shop in the lobby for some fortifying juice to help her stomach and heart settle back down more, then we drove home so she could shake off the unsettled feeling entirely.
As for the bloodwork, now we wait. It make take a couple weeks, but NMDP will do the extra testing necessary, and then get back to Monkey with an update. Based on her initial phone call, it sounds like, if she's a good match, there will be 2 options for the patient and her doctors to choose from:
1) Monkey is given meds to increase the stem cells in her blood, then they are extracted using an apheresis machine. It would be similar to when Buds and I gave platelets, but take hours longer.
2) Monkey is put under general anesthetic and liquid marrow is extracted from both sides of the back of the pelvic bones.
Number 2 is much more rare, but is the one Monkey is hoping for because of, well, you know, the blood draw issues. But either one, she's got the courage to do what needs to be done to help save this person's life if she can.
We are so incredibly proud of her selfless willingness to bring hope and peace and health into the world by helping a stranger. It seemed especially poignant to me that this opportunity came about so soon after her own Grandmother got her blood cancer diagnosis.
May good karma bless them all.
