February 5, 2010

  • bone marrow donor needed for young girl

    Posting for a friend.

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    Further details from the father, Grant Nakatani:

     My daughter Natalie has leukemia (AML) and needs a bone marrow donation in the next 30 days.  If you or anyone you know is Asian, please ask them to do a simple, painless test. They may save her life.

    Our friends put together:
    http://www.hopefornatalie.com
    http://www.facebook.com/Save.Natalie

    Before you sign up, please be willing to make this sacrifice. The worst thing to happen would be for you to be a match, then back out at the last minute.

    1) The initial testing phase is painless.
    You take a sterile cotton swab and wipe the inside of your cheek.
    Next, you put the swab inside the folder provided and send the self-addressed, stamped return envelope to the lab.

    Where to get the kit?
    Go to a donor drive or register for a home kit on-line:
    http://www.aadp.org/pages/main.php?pageid=56&pagecategory=11&keywords=home

    When you send the kit back, label it:
    URGENT: NATALIE NAKATANI

    2) Donating
    If you are lucky enough to be a match, there are 2 ways to donate. You
    have a choice. The doctors generally recommend one method, but ultimately you as the donor have a choice. You should NOT have to fly anywhere; most local hospitals will be able to perform either procedure.
     a) Method 1: Marrow donation
     You go to your local hospital and have a brief outpatient procedure.
     They will give you anaesthesia so you will not feel any pain during the marrow extraction.
     The doctor will poke a special needle into your hip and take some bone marrow.
     You will be discharged from the hospital later that day. You will have some discomfort in your hip for a few days and your bone marrow will regrow completely within a few weeks.

     b) Method 2: Blood cell collection
     For 4 days before the collection, you will receive one injection per day of a synthetic protein called filgrastim. Filgrastim increases your cell count.
     On the day of collection, your blood is removed from one arm and passed through a machine that separates out the collection cells.
     The remaining blood is returned to you through the other arm. The cell collection is an outpatient procedure which takes about 6-8 hours and is done over a 1-2 day period. Most donors experience headaches, or bone or muscle aches several days before the collection. This is a side effect of the filgrastim injections. The aches subside shortly after the collection.