Want To Help? Give Lots of Hope, at Little Risk

 

“If you start to take Vienna – take Vienna!!”

Napoleon Bonaparte – on keeping focused on a goal, applying overwhelming force, and not getting distracted.

 

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Kevin's Update

Cycle 3 of 6 complete, half way done with this part of the process! The Good Doc Levine thinks I'm probably in remission, which is nice to hear. Still the proof is in the marrow, to grossly turn a phrase. Between cycles 4 & 5, in about a month or five weeks, I'll probably have a bone marrow biopsy, which "should" show I'm cleaned up. Then, cycles 5 & 6 which technically are called 'consolidation' but really means "Whew!"

Then the fun really starts. Decision time. We met last week with Dr. Ayala, my transplant doctor from last time, over at Moffitt. He gave us all the raw facts, good and bad, about allogeneic (donor) transplants. I got samples drawn for typing, and for matching against my wonderful and amazing sister Randi's files. She has been a registered marrow donor for years. More about that in a bit.

Now I'm trying to hook up again with The Man Behind The Curtain, Dr. Shah, who is one of the world's cutting edge research doctors for Mantle Cell. He is also at Moffitt, and he answers emails, returns calls, and generally wants to communicate with patients. A saint, I say, a saint. We'll talk about other options besides transplantation, so we can decide what the next 6 months and 4 years will bring.

This treatment was routine, thank goodness. Now that it's Friday, I'm having the down swing like the last two times, but so far, not so bad. We'll see what Saturday morning brings.

How Can I Help You, Kevin?

I get asked, told, begged, and pleaded with daily, for "what can I do to help?" Well here it is. Remember, you asked.

If I decide to go for the transplant, my sister has a 25% chance of being a donor match. In the general population of registered donors, I have about a 70% chance of a match. Now get ready. 6 years ago, when I was first thinking about donor transplants, there were about 5 million registered worldwide. Today, there are over 20 million! But ... with only a 1 in a million chance of a match, do the math. 

Want to help? Go to www.marrow.org and have them mail you a cheek swab kit. Or go down to the blood bank, even if you can't or don't donate blood, and ask them to pull a blood sample. You WILL NOT be a match for me. But you just might for someone. The odds are very slim you'd ever be called.

Don't be scared. YOU DON'T HAVE TO HAVE MARROW SUCKED OUT WITH A NEEDLE to register OR DONATE!  If you did happen to match someone, someday, you'll take a few shots, sit down with 2 I.V. needles in your arms, and have some cells filtered out of your blood. Just like giving platelets. NO MARROW SUCKING! You don't even have to go to where the patient is, just your local hospital. For half  a day. That's it. That's why they're called Stem Cell Transplants these days, the old scary way is gone.

Really want to make me feel better? Want to feel good yourself at less risk of actually having to do anything than the odds of being struck by lightning? Register.

If 100 people would sign up, this whole thing would sort of kind of be worth it. For a thousand, it would be close to a draw.

Marrow.org - do it. Tonight on line, or Monday at Central Florida Blood Bank. Then post on my facebook page, or here, or email me.

Thanks! No jokes tonite, this is serious stuff.

God Bless & Thanks for the prayers, texts, emails, calls, and visits.

KB