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| Donor Amy Lyn (in festive sweater) with her fiance Rylan, her Uncle Jeff (6-year BMT survivor) and her mother, Judy |
Niece Amy Lyn describes the opportunity to donate bone
marrow as “the best Christmas present ever!”
It certainly is the best gift that is humanly possible to give. Many of us on the donor side are praying for
a little girl we’ve never met but who will, hopefully, have our familial blood
flowing through her veins within a month - when Amy’s marrow begins producing blood in the little girl’s body.
Leading up to donation day, we prayed Amy would stay
healthy and safe, just as we prayed for Jeff’s donor leading up to his bone
marrow transplant. We know that on the
recipient side there is a fair amount of anxiety that something will prevent
the transplant from happening. Amy did
what she could to stay healthy, working from home as much as possible and
taking vitamins.
On the eve of Amy’s donation, Uncle Jeff texted her,
“Have a marrow nice day tomorrow!” And the
Nurse Coordinator texted her to say that the patient was ready to receive her
marrow and was “at the point of no return”.
The reminder that the situation was dire made Amy nervous, “Just wrap me
in bubble wrap!”
The collection center was in Philadelphia and Amy was
accompanied there by her mother (my sister Judy) and her fiancé, Rylan. They were treated like VIPs at the hospital -
beginning with the parking valet who knew what Amy was there to do and
continuing with Amy’s nurse and the team who harvested her marrow.
Judy noticed that Amy relaxed once she was at the
hospital being prepped. Marrow donors
need family support and, no matter how willingly given, it doesn’t come without
a bit of anxiety. The mother of Jeff’s
donor told me she was very nervous about Nicole’s donation because she’d given
birth less than a year before. Yet she
supported Nicole’s decision to donate bone marrow to a man she had never met.
During Amy’s procedure, Judy and Rylan sat in a waiting
room together. When the collection was
finished, the entire team of about five doctors and nurses came to the waiting
room to report that Amy was awake and doing well. Rylan noticed one member of the team holding
the precious cooler-full of marrow and asked, “Shouldn’t you be on a train or
plane?” The doctor said some other
things, the team left, and Judy and Rylan realized neither one of them heard
anything past “Amy is awake and doing well.”
Mr. G, a stranger who happened to be sitting nearby and not emotionally
attached to the situation, heard everything the doctor said and was able to
fill in the blanks for Judy and Rylan.
If you are the squeamish sort, you may want to skip to
the last paragraph. We sometimes forget
that “transplant talk” is not normal for most people. It is still a relatively rare medical procedure
and transplants using actual marrow – rather than stem cells – is rarer still
(30% of bone marrow transplants).
During the three-hour procedure under anesthesia, Amy was infused with her
own blood (drawn a couple of weeks ago for this purpose). While in recovery, she had a reaction to the
pain medication and vomited. She was
given anti-nausea and pain meds through her IV and was kept overnight at the
hospital to monitor her blood counts and change her dressings in the
morning.
Two liters of marrow were
collected via six holes in her hips (130+ extractions - only small bits could
be collected each time so as not to dilute the marrow, she was told). Amy had no concept of what two liters of
marrow looked like so I sent her a picture of Uncle Jeff’s (well, Nicole’s) two
liters of marrow. I told her how worried
I was that the hole to hang it on the IV pole would stretch too far and break -
even though Jeff’s nurse said that never happens.
The day after donation Amy was doing well but was
bothered by numbness in her left hand which rendered it almost useless. We speculated that her hand was pinched underneath
her or hanging off the table. Full use
was restored within a couple of days. I
suggested Amy alert the doc so future donors could be positioned to prevent
this from happening. The Nurse Coordinator
asked a lot of questions about her hand so Amy felt the issue would be
addressed. In addition to the follow-up phone
call from the Nurse Coordinator, the anesthesiologist called to check on Amy. They treated her like the VIP she is!
Nicole offered Amy this post-donation advice: eat lots of iron-rich foods. Nicole enjoyed a bloody steak the night of
her donation because “the body knows what it needs”. Amy was prescribed iron and folic acid for a
month. “Oh, that is smart!” Nicole says.
On Christmas day (Day Zero plus 4) Amy looked tired,
moved a little gingerly due to her sore hips, but she glowed! (Hmmm, is that a halo?) We’d texted a lot during the last few days
and seeing her, hugging her, brought tears to my eyes. Her family pampered her as warranted and maybe
a bit more than was necessary.
