If you’ve been reading this blog for a while you will know that an acquaintance of mine has leukemia & has been working very hard to find a stem cell donor. He finally did, and he’ll be receiving his transplant in Ottawa today. This lovely piece of text is an excerpt from Emru Townsend’s latest blog entry. It explains how the transplant process works, but it is also a celebration of creation.
First, an explanation for those who haven’t been around the whole time. We talk about bone marrow, but what transplant recipients like me really need are healthy stem cells. Bone marrow contains plenty of the stem cells we need, but times have changed. In 70% of all extraction cases, we get the required stem cells through a process called PBSC (peripheral blood stem cell) extraction. This process is similar to donating blood, except the donor gets change: the blood is extracted through a needle, which takes the blood to an apheresis machine, which separates the stem cells from the rest of the blood. Anything that isn’t needed for the extraction is returned to the donor. As for those remaining extractions, yes, those are actual bone marrow—a spongy red tissue.
Either way, my transplant works the same. Not through any kind of operation, but by pumping the stem cells/marrow through my chest catheter, the same way as I get my blood transfusions, for example. As I understand it marrow transplants take three hours or so (don’t quote me on that); my transplant, which is of stem cells, is 60-80 minutes (two units, 30-40 minutes per unit).
“But wait,” you might ask. “I have been following your posts, and you’ve mentioned that your catheter is a central venous catheter. That is, it goes into your heart to get pumped into the bloodstream. So how do the stem cells get to inside your bones, which is where they’ll generate the new marrow?” Ah, that is the freaky part, the part that medical professionals marvel over but don’t question, because hey, it works. The stem cells know where to go and they just get themselves there.
A moment’s pause for the awesomeness of creation, please.
~ Emru Townsend, “Part of the Process”, Heal Emru Notes
If you would like to take some time today to talk to your children about leukemia and stem cell transplants, there is a free downloadable colouring book available from the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. My children and I are using it to discuss what Emru has been going through, and what is happening to him during the transplant today. Perhaps you will find it useful too.
Emru had less than a 4% chance of finding a donor through a bone marrow registry when his sister’s bone marrow type was determined not to match his. This is partly due to the lack of awareness about the registry, but also in large part because he is of Caribbean decent. Non-Caucasian populations are not well represented among potential donors. Emru & his family have been working tirelessly for months to get the word out, so that people will realize the importance of stem cell transplant (which is also helpful for people with sickle cell anemia, by the way!)
Because of Emru, his sister Tamu, and wife Vicki, there are a lot of people who got involved to educate the public and a lot of people discovered registering was as easy as filling in a form and giving either a cheek swab or a blood sample. Donating stem cells is not much more complicated than giving blood, and does not put the donor at any risk medically.
I know a lot of homeschooling families like to do community service projects, and this might be an interesting idea for service in your community. Think about putting up some posters or talking to people in your community about registering. I’m sure you can come up with other ideas, too!
This work was created by Ruby of Freehold 2, and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 Canada License.
Excerpts copyright quoted authors. Please visit their sites to read more, and respect the terms of their copyrights. Thanks!
