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Old Sat May 25, 2019, 02:18 AM
Meri T. Meri T. is offline
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Join Date: Aug 2016
Location: Tokyo, Japan
Posts: 174
Meeting my donor !

I am meeting my donor in a few days. I know, I know, my donor is my brother, but I haven't seen him since he gave me his stem cells 2 years ago. He's flying over and we will have tons of stuff to talk about.

I have 5 brother and sisters. He was the only one that matched. It was a bit scary at first, to see if I could find them all. After the war, we were kind of dispersed, if that's the right word; Vietnam, US, NZ-Australia and Japan.

I am not of Japanese ethnic so the hospital mentioned using the Japan donor system wouldn't help much, so all hope was for a sibling HLA. The hospital gave me a saliva test kit, like the ones you see in the movies, I sent them the kit, they took their saliva and sent them back, and then the kit was sent to the laboratory for HLA testing. It's easier than drawing blood.

I videotaped my brother's stem cell being taken, 6 hours ! Before that he had injections for 3 days to increase his white cells. After the ordeal he suffered a numb head for a while. Never complained at all. We are close now, he asks about my health more than my other siblings. Maybe because my marrow and his are the same now.

Meri
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Female born 1965, diagnosed MDS RAEB1 in August 2016, watch and wait for 9 months. Sibling match - Stem cell transplant in 2017.
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