Donation Day

Today was donation day!!

I got to the infusion center at PSL @ 0645, and was greeted with a flurry of medical personnel. First the doc came in to assess that I was indeed healthy and who I said I was. Then the medical techs started priming the machine and my veins. Rhonda and Sarah were absolute sweethearts! Melissa my RN was sweet as pie. They explained every step, walked me through each action, encouraged me, and made me as comfortable as possible.

The 5th injection was given and about 45 minutes later I was starting to get hooked up to the machine. An IV was started in my R arm, where the return line was also hooked up to. Melissa, the RN, gave me a little adavan upon request to help calm me down for the stick in my L arm. Once we were ready, I was stuck with the needle in my L arm that would take my blood from my body, through the filter (centrifuge) and run the blood back into the line via my R arm.

They filtered 22 liters of blood, to produce a half bag of rich blood full of platelets, WBC's, stem cells, mast cells, and all the other components that my recipient needed.

After five hours of keeping my L arm still, the procedure was done and the bag was whisked away, where it hopped on a plane about an hour ago to go somewhere in the US to my recipient. I know only that she is domestic, an adult female with acute leukemia.

Now I'm at home, completely exhausted, sore, my bones still quite achy, a little light-headed from having my body not only go through the procedure but also having my own HCT, platelet and RBC count drop! It was all well worth it :-)

 At 24 I still need my mama!!

 All hooked up to the "circuit"...my L arm was covered to keep the veins warm

 the machine

 the bag filling up during the 5-hr procedure

me with the bag before it got whisked off to go to the recipient tomorrow morning!! 

You can be the match!! 

Thank you to those at the National Bone Marrow Registry and the staff at the Infusion Center at Presbyterian St. Luke's who were so wonderful, caring, and compassionate during the whole process!! :-)  

With Her Last Breathe

This first week of nursing school has been so insane for a variety of reasons. So much going on, packed into a very small amount of time, and so many big things! School has started off wonderfully. I'm not used to sitting in lecture for so long every day, but I am enjoying my professors and how real they are. In my first degree, a lot of the professors were people above me. My professors now are people who are well aware that soon we will call ourselves colleagues. Quite refreshing! The program is a little disorganized but at least it's a semi-organized chaos!

My injections for my donation have been going wonderfully. I don't mind getting poked in the belly I've found out. But these injections are making me incredibly sore! Tonight has by far been the worst. I just feel like I've been railroaded super hardcore; everything is achy and my body is just exhausted in a sense right now. I can't get comfortable to save my life and my lower back is throbbing/radiating pain. But even with this discomfort it still doesn't match what my donee has been going through and the prep she's going through to get ready for this donation. Tomorrow, I'm not so much looking forward to the big needle in my arm but it's still a small discomfort in relation to what my donee's going through. I believe all will be well!!

Bugs. Roommate freaking out and moving out because of bugs. That's been another crazy aspect.

Lastly, minigrams passed away last night.

She slipped into a comatose state Sunday evening. We knew it was coming, the end stages of ESLD, but mom didn't tell me when it happened as first day of class was Monday morning. I didn't go Monday evening due to my chaotic schedule. Tuesday evening I went over to be there for my mom. Wednesday I was expecting to hear grams had passed but was shocked when mom said she was still hanging on. Mom told me grams had what's known as the "death rattle" and that it was rather unpleasant but if I wanted to come she would really appreciate the support. So I went and sat with them.

Upon walking in the room, hearing the death rattle for the first time was a little unarming. The sound was comparable to an engine refusing to turn over. Grams breathing was quite labored and forced, the sounds from her lungs was excruciating loud for the room, her heart rate was quite brisk at 145 bpm, and her respirations were 45 breaths/min. Her body was quite dehydrated, having been in that state for 3 days and her body was on fire. At first I encouraged her to go if it was her time and we stayed out of her room. But upon returning like I had promised her I would with some coffee, I had the sense that she was fighting so hard simply because she was scared to die. She was a tiny woman in life, quite frightened of the world in many aspects. And honestly, I wouldn't want to die alone either. So I took her hand in mind and started keeping post.

As the nurses came in, they knew I was in nursing school and would tell me what they were doing. They gave her some medications intended to dry out the secretions in the lung that would make it less laborous for her to breathe, and some morphine, for any pain. The second round of medicines they gave, as they were administered IV, you could literally see, hear, and feel them take effect as grams body started to relax and her breathing became less laborous, the sound from her lungs more quiet, and her body more relaxed.

Nearing the evening, my brother Marshall came to say his last goodbyes. On his way over, I started to become a little more concerned he wouldn't make it in time as I could hear her breaths getting more shallow and relaxed and heard her respiration rate decrease. As soon as Marshall came in the room I let him take her hand and as soon as he started talking, her breathing became more laborous. She knew it was Marshall. After a few minutes her breathing again began to relax and calm down. A half hour later, I could tell we were nearing the end. Her respirations had decreased to around 22, her heart rate had dropped from the 140's to the low 120's, and the interval between breaths went from being consistent to varying. I told my mom, brother, and uncle (who were all in the room) that the end was near and if they were comfortable, it would be beneficial for both them for closure and for grams to feel the touch of loved ones, in the very last intimate moments of life.

Less than a half hour later she took her last breaths. It was very peaceful, very calm, and very intimate as we sat there and embraced her hands and arms while she went from this world and into the arms of Jesus. With her hand in both of mine, I was able to monitor her heart beat and got to feel the last pump of her heart before her spirit was gone. In a sheer instant, she went from her earthly body to her spiritual body. And what a blessing and honor it was to be there. To comfort and love her in her last moments, to support my mother and walk my family through the dying process, and to experience such a precious moment in time that not many people get to witness very often.

Now I'm heading to bed, in preparation for my donation tomorrow, in hopes that I can give a second chance at life to a woman who needs it. How blessed am I for all the events that have transpired this week?! Truly blessed indeed.

"You Are The Perfect Match"

On Wednesday December 14th I got a call from a lady at the bone marrow donation....the basic introductory name and where she's calling from, tagged along with she needed to talk to me about my blood samples, and then followed by the words "you are the perfect match for the donor".

FANTASTIC!!!

Since then, I have signed all the paperwork, found out more about the exact procedure I'll be doing, and today I had my physical/first appt for the procedure.

Here's what I know. I'm donating to a lady with acute leukemia, and I am taking part of a research study as I am not doing bone marrow donation, as in someone sticking a huge needle in my hip. I am doing what is known as PBSC donation. I will be injected with a chemical hormone that will stimulate my immune system to ramp up and produce lots of bone-making stem cells, WBC's, etc. I do those for five days and on the fifth day I go through a procedure known as apheresis. It will take approximately 5-6 hours. I'll be hooked up to a machine that is much like a hemodialysis machine, in which my blood will exit via one arm, go through a machine which will filter out the PBSC products, and then put my blood back in my body.

It will be painful in a way, as the injections will produce flu-like symptoms, and then having huge needles in my arms for 5 hours or more is not fun, but if that's all I have to endure to save a life, I'm going for it!!

So excited...and nervous....to do this donation.

I donate Jan 13th. In one week I'll start nursing school and donate bone marrow. What a week that will be!!

It's the Season for Giving

My cell phone is constantly on silent or MIA anymore.

Since I started my job at Denver Health in April, I went from being completely reliant on my phone (was on my person at all times and every notification had a different ringtone, etc) to learning that being disconnected can sometimes be a beautiful thing. Training at nights, I learned how to become disconnected from being immediately available and since then I've transitioned to it being a habit that even when I'm not at work, it's on silent or not within reach most of the time as I don't need to be instantly available and I really just don't need to be that connected.

The only downfall, is I miss calls all the time. Which is why I always tell people, if I don't answer - and I probably won't, even if I look at my phone - then leave a message.

I walked out of class on Tuesday to see I had a missed call from a number I didn't know AND a voice message. Intrigued as I don't get many calls period, let alone from random numbers, I listened to the voicemail and got super excited!

Two years ago I signed up for the bone marrow registry. I've always been of the mindset that as long as my body is capable that I should use it to help others. I have been an organ donor since I got my driving learners permit and have donated time and money to several foundations/charities/etc. When I found the bone marrow registry it only made sense that I should offer a sample and be on the registry to help out others. I mean, it's bone marrow, it's not like donating a full-blown organ; it regenerates itself and I'm mostly healthy so it only makes sense!!

Fast forward to Tuesday and I got a lovely voicemail from a woman named Rose from the registry saying that my sample was a potential match!! She asked if I would be willing to continue with the process to see if we truly were a match and then proceed with the donation.

I never expected that I would actually get this call, though I hoped I would, as matching someone else is quite difficult.

Next tuesday I go in to give a blood sample and submit a full health questionnaire. In the sample I provided several years ago they match 6 markers. Once that match is found they call the donor in for a blood sample (as the first sample was a series of cheek swabs) to test for a full set of 10 markers and to see how the donor & recipient's blood interact. If that proves successful, then we start making plans for the donation process itself! Here's to hoping I am indeed a match and can help the health of another individual. By simply giving some of my bone marrow, I could help save a life :-) If I am I'll tell more about the donation process itself!

If you are interested in bone marrow donation, simply go to this link:
Be The Match

It's a simple process to sign up to be on the registry. You simply fill out some brief contact information and do a quick, simple series of cheek swabs. It takes a whole five minutes and you could potentially be somebody's match :-)