A Daughter’s Gift: Donating Stem Cells to Save My Dad Part 1
In early February, my dad was diagnosed with AML–Acute Myloid Leukemia. His treatment was to include a bone marrow transplant and he would need to find a donor. My sister and I went into the blood lab at Hopkins and did a simple blood test to see if we were matches. We both turned out to be half matches, and the donor coordinator chose me as the donor. They never said why, but we assumed it was that I lived close by, had no little kids to care for, worked from home, had no tattoos, and hadn’t traveled outside the country in quite some time (8 years).
The first step in my donor journey was an Evaluation Day. This was a full day at Hopkins where they did tests to find out if I could, in fact, be my dad’s donor. The donor coordinators set up all of the appointments and all I had to do was show up hydrated and full of hearty meals. We started with a Vein Check, in a room just like the one I would be in during the donation process. They looked at my arm veins, did an ultrasound of them, touched them, made notes, discussed, and decided that they would work for the IV procedure.
Next, I went to get an EKG which took about 5 minutes. Then to get a Chest X-Ray which took another 5 minutes. Then to the Blood Lab to have 15-17 vials of blood taken for all sorts of tests. They leave you a good amount of time before this appointment so that you can eat and drink, because they want you to show up to this one full of food and hydrated. None of the tests include fasting so you can eat to your heart’s content.
After the blood draws, I had a physical and an interview with a Nurse Practitioner, picked up a medication at the pharmacy in the building, then had an interview with a donor Doctor and signed consent forms. My last appointment was with a Nurse to show me and my husband how we (or really he) would be administering shots of Neupogen into my stomach. Neupogen would grow the stem cells inside my bone marrow needed for the donation.
A week and a half later, I went back in for another quick blood draw.
Then about a week later, I started the shots. These were the least fun of the whole process, but the most necessary. Every day for 5 days, my husband would give me 2 shots in my stomach, and then I carried on with my day/night. There was an increasing amount of what they call “bone pain” which might be described as growing pains, or achiness. I was on a strict regiment of Tylenol and Claritin during this time to ease the pain.
It was more of a soreness in my bones in places that you normally don’t feel during a flu-like illness. Those were my only side effects. I worked from home during this time, and walked the dog just slower than usual, ate all of my regular meals. There are no dietary restrictions for this process other than eat hearty meals.
On day 5 of the shots, I went in for my Donation/Collection Day. The bone pain was at the highest level on this day, and I was ready to donate. I laid in bed in the HATS/Apheresis Department at Hopkins, and the nurse put an IV in each of my arms. I had to hold still for the 4 hour procedure, but could watch TV, eat/drink (someone had to feed me), sleep, listen to a book or podcast, whatever I wanted. My arms were both placed on pillows to make it more comfortable.
I didn’t even realize when the process had started because I didn’t feel anything abnormal. Once the IVs were in my arms, and the machine was turned on to collect my stem cells, the process went by pretty quickly. Out of my right arm, the IV pulled my blood which held my extra stem cells. It took it to a machine next to me that had a centrifuge inside of it which separated the stem cells and the plasma to be donated, then brought my blood back to me into my other arm’s IV. It is a 4 hour process and there are no real bathroom breaks since you aren’t allowed to get up, so you go before and after the procedure and it works out just fine.
They check your levels before, during, and after the process to see what your White Blood Cell count is as you donate. A normal WBC count is around 10. At donation time after the growth factor of Neupogen shots, the WBC count is about 50-60. And mine was 93.66! The nurses had never seen a number this high and they were very surprised but pleased.
After the 4 hours of donating, they unhooked me, and I went home to rest. The next morning, although tired and a little achy, I attended my stepdaughter’s high school graduation while my dad was receiving my stem cells.
By: April Gottsagen
Bone Marrow Donor