I finally received the long awaited call today. Delete Blood Cancer called and said they had a very brief update, which consisted of checkmarks on a form. The good news: Engraftment has occurred. This means that my blood stem cells have found their way to the spaces in the large bones and have started producing new blood cells for my recipient. What's really crazy is that experts are not completely certain how this amazing process works, but the cells just know where to go I guess. So my blood, is in him. Very strange feeling. I'm so happy to hear this news finally.
There was also some not so good news in the update, they mentioned that the patient is having some kind of complications. Nothing specific, so I don't know what it is. Since their immune system was non-existent and at best very weak now, it could be something like pneumonia, or just about anything I guess. I continue to pray that he gets better and better.
It's all starting to hit me now.... It was kind of surreal and strange, I just sat on a machine at Georgetown University Hospital on March 24th for a few hours and then my stem cells went off in a plane to Paris, France and went into someone else on the 25th. It didn't really feel like anything spectacular had happened at the time. I knew someone needed a bone marrow transplant due to Acute Myeloid Leukemia, but the separation and anonymity of everything kind of desensitized it all. But now that I have had an update from the patients doctor, I cried a little. Someone is really alive today and it's because my cells are making blood in them right now. I'm so happy today to hear this. It may be some time before I get another update, but hopefully I'll continue to get good news.
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