Monday, July 25, 2011

Safer Child Products

Last week my husband, Dr. Allen, received an email that could change his life.  He was told that he is a potential bone marrow match!  Over the next few weeks, he will be sharing the decisions, the process, and the journey. We welcome comments about your thoughts and your own experiences too!

I must get over 100 e-mails a day and almost deleted the e-mail that would change my life. You know how it goes, scan the subject line, see if it seems interesting and then scan the “From” line.  Strange subject line: “Bone Marrow Match!”, “From” line had “Piper Wood”. Since I have my e-mail set in preview pane I was able to see a blue outline banner across the top that says, “Be The Match” with a logo after the word “Be” with the rest a blur in a dark blue background. It was quite informal with an introductory, Dear Allen, with my name in red letters. I am not used to important e-mails addressed to me this way. Actually, I deleted the e-mail and later dragged it back to my inbox.

It took me several patients later to read the message deeper, not word for word but a deeper scan of the content. It had a bunch of links, areas in bold, areas in red and related that I had joined National Marrow Donor Program in May 2008. I must admit, it took me time to connect the dots, I barely remember last week yet alone 2008. My heart started to beat faster when the connections were being made. What do I do? Delete it and no one will know was one of my many thoughts that raced in my mind that afternoon at 4 PM. Was this the bone marrow drive my resident organized to try and find a match for one of our department ‘s administrative assistants son? I called my former resident and spoke to some of my colleagues. I read the e-mail again, “49 year old in need of a transplant”.

The next day, my wife received a voice mail on our home phone and the same day I received a letter in the mail, all saying the same thing. All urging me to please respond fast; this man has Non Hodgkins Lymphoma and needs a transplant. My unsettled stomach churned and churned. I was the medical student that hated blood, never donated blood, and would almost pass out every time I saw a lot of blood. Just press the delete button, call the registry and leave a message that I was not interested kept entering my mind. I looked at the website links and kept focusing on the 20-40 hours needed to complete the process if I was a close match, 1-2 days out of work, up to 4 weeks of pain, anesthesia or not, shots to bring up my cell counts, patients that may need to be cancelled, vacation plans with my family. All of this is a big blur. Maybe there is another close match for this gentleman!! However, I kept thinking of Mark Wibbens, the person the bone marrow drive was supposed to help but didn’t, our good friend who survived leukemia at age 2 (did not need a transplant), and my own patient who was in the hospital with a new diagnosis of Non Hodgkins Lymphoma after having his tumor removed.

My usual late night e-mail response was no exception to this situation. After discussing this with my wife I sent an e-mail the next evening, almost 11 PM, “What do I need to do now to go to next step”……….

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