If I can Be The Match, you can Be The Match!

Today I am blogging about a more serious topic. It's not something I generally talk about. I'm not sure why. I just don't. April 4 was the 7 year anniversary of the day I donated stem cells to help save the life of a man with AML, Acute myelogenous leukemia. I'm not writing about this to say, "look what I did" or brag in any way...I think that's why I usually don't talk about it, I don't want it to ever come across like that. But I am writing about it to inform other people about bone marrow/stem cell donation and encourage anyone who is interested to join the registry. This can give you the opportunity to save someones life through donation while you are still alive - you can watch it happen. There are many instances in my life where God has led me to do things...my follow through hasn't always been 100%, but never in my life have I felt God leading me to do something the way He did when I put my name on the National Bone Marrow Donor Registry.
In October, 2003 I was 19 years old and a sophomore in college at Western Kentucky University. I went to my dorm room one day and my roommate told me about a bone marrow drive being held in a few days for a young man in Bowling Green who had leukemia. His sister was a match and they did the transplant, but unfortunately she was too close of a match (whatever that means) and his body rejected her bone marrow. So his family was holding a huge drive to get more people on the registry and hopefully find a match for him. I have never in my life felt so strongly that I needed to do something. God may as well have written on my dorm wall, "Kelly, go to this!!!!" So a few days later we went to the drive and of course had to fill out some paperwork. One of the first questions asked if I wanted to just be checked as a match for just this local man, or if I wanted to be placed on the national registry. After a brief hesitation, I checked to be on the national registry. They drew some blood, no big deal, and after a week or so I forgot about it. Three months later, January 2004, (a few weeks after Ronnie and I started dating) I got a phone call from the Central Kentucky Blood Center telling me that I was a possible match for a man with AML and asking if I wanted to undergo further blood testing to see if I was a perfect match. I was shocked to have already heard something, but anxious to see if I was a match! A couple of days later I went to the hospital to have more bloodwork done and soon found out that I was a match. I received tons of phone calls, paperwork, booklets, etc to make sure I was informed of everything that would happen and to make sure this was really something I wanted to do. But, of course, when you find out that you can save the life of someone who is dying, and could very well be the only person who could, how do you say no to that? So the process continued. I went to the hospital several times over the next couple of months for blood work. There were lots of conversations regarding the type of transplant I would do - bone marrow or stem cell. I ended up not having a choice. A stem cell transplant works faster than a bone marrow transplant, and the man I was donating to was getting very, very sick. On Easter Sunday, April 3, 2004, my mom and I traveled to Lexington. My transplant was to be the next morning at the University of Kentucky hospital. I felt terrible. The last several days I had to receive injections to make my body produce more stem cells. I was told that the recipient was a large man in his 40's, and I wasn't a very large 19 year old girl, so I needed to make a lot of stem cells. They told me the injections would cause me to have flu like symptoms, and they weren't kidding. It was a rough few days. When we got to the hospital the wonderful lady from the Blood Center who had been with me through everything was there waiting for me. Normally people would donate stem cells the same way they would donate blood...through your arm. You would actually have blood coming out of one arm, filtering through a machine to separate the stem cells, then going back into your other arm. However, since I was small and my recipient was large, they needed a lot of stem cells and that procedure would have taken 2 days to complete. So, I had a central line placed in my jugular vein so that the process would only take about 6 hours. That was not fun, especially since I do NOT handle medical procedures well. I even had to lie down at the hospital any time they would take just a few small vials of blood. Having a central line inserted into my neck wasn't fun. But I survived and we began. To my surprise the procedure only ended up taking about 4-5 hours. Once the extra stem cells started coming out I felt sooo much better. By the time I was completely finished I actually felt great, and I was starving! Then came the coolest part. As soon as they were finished the stem cells were packed into a cooler and someone literally bolted from the hospital to board a plane and take the stem cells to my recipient who was waiting for them. I felt like I was in a movie!!
A few days later I received a call telling me that the transplant was a success - I knew it would be! He was doing great. Yay!! It was the most amazing feeling to know that I had saved someone's life. I could only imagine the celebration that was going on in a hospital somewhere (I never knew where he was from, though I have reasons to suspect Texas).
You can do this too!! It's so easy to be placed on the national registry - it doesn't even involve blood!! Here is the Be The Match website and here is the page to get started joining the registry. You just fill out a registration form, then you will receive a small package in the mail and must collect a swab of cheek cells to mail back. Simple as that! Ross actually recived his package in the mail today and in about 30 seconds he had it ready to mail back. Know that your chances of matching are extremely slim. Throughout my experience I met a ton of people who told me they had been on the registry for 10, 20, 30 years and never matched up with anyone. For me to match up with someone in just 3 short months was almost unheard of. Divine intervention is what I like to call it.
Unfortunately the man who received my stem cells passed away 8 months after the transplant, December 2004. Unrelated to AML, he suffered a massive cerebral hemorrhage. I was absolutely devastated when I heard the news. I couldn't understand how we could both go through all that we did for him to die 8 months later. I don't know what happened to him in the last 8 months of his life, but I know it was important. Though this was upsetting news, I knew that there was a reason he needed 8 more months, and I was honored to be able to give that to him.
Please consider doing this. I'll admit the procedure wasn't pleasant, there was some pain and there were some tears, but I would do it again in a second. Especially when I think about it being my loved one who needed help. I know we would all do anything to save the lives of our family, so why not do it for a stranger, someone else's family. As scary as it is to think about, you never know when it could be your family member who needs to help of a stranger to survive. I can tell you that it is one of the best experiences I have ever had in my life.
The last few months I have really had a desire to reach out to people about bone marrow donation. Before my donation it was something that I really knew nothing about. I had heard of bone marrow transplants and knew that it was generally for children and adults with leukemia, but I didn't really know how people donated, or realize that it was a live donation, or understand that you could donate to a complete stranger. But you can and I hope some of you will decide to join the registry! And please feel free to ask me any questions! I would love to talk to anyone about this amazing experience that I had. :) God Bless!