Top Shelf Barbershop will be hosting an event June 27! You can register to be a Donor! Team Lola! In October of 2010 the DeYoung family moved from West Michigan to Tanzania to work in the mission field. Less than 6 months after they moved, their sweet daughter Lola became sick and needed to get care back in the states. Thinking it would be a short trip, they left all their belongings back in Tanzania. Lola went for testing at the childrens hosiptal in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and on February 14, 2011, she was diagnosed with leukemia. She went through 26 months of treatment here in Michigan and in April of 2013 they celebrated her victory in her battle against cancer. Two months later in June 2013, her cancer returned and she is now facing a much larger, more grueling journey. If this treatment does not work, Lola will be in need of a bone marrow transplant to save her life. Lola has very unique bone marrow that has a rare genetic marker and there are currently no perfect matches for her on the bone marrow registry. Heres where we need your help. First, please consider taking roughly 20 minutes of your day to be added to the registry. Joining the registry is as simple as completing some paperwork and swabbing your cheek. Young donors procude the most successful transplants, and this is why you must be between 18-44 years to register. If Lola does need a transplant, you could potentially be her perfect match. You could also match one of the thousands of patients all over the world who are also looking for a donor to help. Second, please consider making a financial donation so we can sign up as many participants to the registry as willing. Every $25 we raise, will go toward the tissue-typing fees of testing a new members cheek swab kit. By making a financial contibution towards our event, you are helping many people join Be The Match at no cost and help save lives. Our goal is to register 100 people, therefore we are setting our fundraising goal for $2500 to cover the cost. Bone Marrow Transplant Info: At the registry event, a cheek swab is all thats needed. Its only if you match a patient down the road that you would be asked to donate. If that day comes (and you have the chance to be someones hero!), know that DONATING BONE MARROW IS NOT AS INVASIVE AS YOU MIGHT THINK! Roughly 75% of donors are asked to donate non-surgically in a process similar to donating platelets or plasma. It is called a peripheral blood stem cell donation, and is performed in a blood center setting while the donor is completely awake and comfortable. This donation process begins with 4 days of prep time, during which the donor receives a shot in the muscle of their arm. This is a mere 20 minutes or so each day and is typically given by a nurse at a location and time set by the donor. This shot is of filgrastim and it stimulates your blood stem cells to kick out of the bone marrow and into the bloodstream. On donation day, blood stem cells are collected from the donors bloodstream using an apheresis procedure that allows us to take just the blood components we need and returns all other blood cells (red cells, plasma, etc.) back to the donor. It is a 4-6 hour day on average but is not painful or dangerous. The donor will return back to normal work activities the next day. Roughly 25% of donors are asked to donate surgically. This is an outpatient surgical procedure for which the donor is under general anesthesia. Liquid bone marrow is extracted from the donors hollow cavity of their pelvic bone. The surgical incision is very small and is on the donors lower back. Less than 5% of the donors total marrow is collected, so it is replenished within several weeks much like when donating blood. The donor will feel some achy soreness in their lower back which typically lasts 2-7 days. It is not often something that keeps the donor from returning to work or school, though we do recommend the donor rest as much as possible and allow that soreness to subside. Please direct any questions regarding Be The Match or registering to be a donor, contact Ryan Heinhuis (Michigan Blood) at (616)225-8986 or [email protected].
Posted on: Tue, 10 Jun 2014 21:46:45 +0000
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