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Old Fri Apr 6, 2012, 10:00 PM
Neil Cuadra Neil Cuadra is offline
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Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: Los Angeles, California
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Quote:
Originally Posted by sherryjac2 View Post
Thank you both for your replies. My sister is in very good health, but she is also very petite...about 5'1" and maybe 105 lbs? She is 4 years older than me. I wondered if size was also an issue to consider? I hate to keep thinking of all the reasons she won't work, but I'm trying to educate myself just in case.
Sherry,

It's good to consider all the angles, but of course you can drive yourself crazy with "what ifs". So ask all the questions you want but don't assume every problem you can imagine is actually a problem. Marrowforums members are patients and caregivers, not medical professionals (with a few exceptions) but we can try to provide answers since collectively we have a lot of experience dealing with doctors and treatments. And feel free to ask the doctor the same questions when you get the chance, since he or she is your real authority. Also, chances are that you could talk to the professionals in the transplant department at your treatment center and learn about transplant procedures and policies from them first-hand.

In answer to your question, I've never heard of the size of the donor being an issue. It it's a stem cell transplant, it'll be for your sister much like donating blood. If it's a bone marrow transplant, it'll be minor surgery for her, and again I don't think her body size matters.

The only case I know where a person's size is an issue is when the patient (not the donor) is large, and the patient is receiving an umbilical cord transplant. This means that the donor is a baby whose umbilical cord was saved at time of birth and matches the patient. In that case the doctors combine two cord blood units to get enough donor cells for larger-bodied patients.

Since your sister is an adult, even though she's a small adult, I think they shouldn't have any trouble getting enough donor cells for you if she turns out to be your donor.
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