A Hero

So! I pretty much have an amazing husband who had the opportunity to donate bone marrow... AGAIN! And he was willing to do this for a complete stranger. He is awesome.

He has been on the National Bone Marrow Registry since he was in high school. There was a sick little boy here in town and they held a bone marrow drive and he signed up to be on the registry.

The first time he was called and asked to donate was in 2004. It was such an amazing experience... Especially a year later when we had the chance to meet the man and his family that Matthew so unselfishly helped. 

We have since become great friends with that family and hope and pray for the same outcome for the recipient of this donation.

At the end of June they started the process here in Pocatello by giving him his first two rounds of injections of the growth hormone. After that we flew down to Spokane where they finished the injections and harvested his stem cells and platelets. The injections that they gave him were to make his bones mass produce stem cells that would enter his blood stream. It was the same procedure as his first donation, and the cells were taken via his blood stream. When most people thing of a bone marrow donation they think of it being taken from the hip bones. Depending on the type of illness this process seems to work better. 

They picked up Matthew a little after 4 am and got the party started. This was him around 10:30 when I got there with Parker. 

 His blood was taken from his left arm and this machine would separate the stem cells and platelets (the good stuff) and put the rest back into his right arm. (Which was strapped down to the bed because the first time he donated he didn't want the nurse to see him going potty and bent his arm too much during the procedure and messed up the return blood needle and caused an hour delay while they had to re-do all the lines and clean the machine because he had contaminated it. They didn't want that to happen again because they were on a very tight schedule to finish the procedure and get it to the airport on time.)

 Parker was a little worried about Daddy at first, but quickly got over it. :)

 The return line. The gave him more fluids than they took out (they added saline), but he was left with a critically low level of platelets. It usually takes 2-3 weeks for the counts to build back up.

 Matthew with his team. He sent me a text that morning stating that he had lost his wedding ring and asked me to look for it. (He was guessing it was in the pool because he had taken Parker swimming the day before and had gotten sunscreen on his hands.) But when I got to the center and saw him with all these cougars I decided he had conveniently just forgotten it that morning. LOL! JK! Good thing a little boy at the hotel found it and turned it in to the front desk.

 This is Matthew with the goods! It is hard to believe that this much fluid can be life saving! His counts were twice as high as they were hoping for, so they were able to give half to the recipient immediately and freeze the other half for later. How cool is that?!?

Well there you have it... The reason for our trip to Spokane. Matthew will be taken off the registry now because they don't have the research available for how these hormones affect the donor long term after more than two donations. The only reasons they would allow him to donate again would be for and immediate family member or for a previous recipient. 

I'll be honest... I am so proud of him, but I am really glad that he (FINGERS CROSSED!) won't have to go through this again. He was in a lot of pain from the hormones leading up to the donation, and in a lot of pain for about a week after. It also really affected his lungs this time making it hard for him to breath.

Good job, Honey! I know you don't like it when people call you this, but you really are a hero!

If you are interested in becoming part of the national registry, you can do so by going to www.marrow.org and they will send you a kit for you to do a cheek swab and return to them. Or you can attend a local bone morrow drive.