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In case anyone is curious about how the whole stem cell donation process I went through works (and might be interested in doing it yourself) here is a detailed Facebook post I made describing it. Spoilers for size. 

 

The first day I was brought in they took a sample of my blood to see how many white blood cells I was producing. It is normal for a person to produce anywhere from 4000 to 10,000 white blood cells per milliliter of blood. My count was around 5500. After receiving the first shot, the next day my count was at 30,000. It wound up peaking at 46,000 white blood cells per milliliter when they did the collection. I had to come in each day for 5 straight days to get my blood drawn to measure how many cells I was producing and then get another shot. On the 5th day (Wed) they did the harvest. I was hooked up to a machine that drew the blood out of one arm, ran it through a centrifuge to collect the cells it needed then returned the rest of the blood into my body via the other arm. It's basically not any different than giving blood. The only down side was that I was not able to move either arm during the 3 hour procedure so if I had an itch or wanted to change the channel on the TV I had to ask the nurse that was in there with me to do it for me (and I HATE asking people to do stuff for me). Other than not being able to move my arms the procedure was pretty mundane. I wasn't sedated for it, so I was able to drive home afterwards. 

 

As far as how it feels, it wasn't too bad the first couple of days. I was a little sore but not too bad. The last day and a half or so were the worst (when the counts were highest) and it still wasn't terrible. My back hurt and my left leg hurt (I was actually limping quite a bit); and it was a little difficult to sleep on the night before the harvest because my back hurt so badly. Once the harvest was completed, the soreness lessened. It will probably still be a couple of days until it goes away completely as the effects of the shots wear off but all in all it's not bad. My back still is a little sore if I sit for too long or try to lift anything more than a couple of pounds (they actually told me multiple times not to do any heavy lifting until I feel back to normal). I'm sure by monday I'll probably be back to normal. 

 

If this sounds like something you would be willing to do, you can register with the National Marrow Donor Program at bethematch.org. They send you a kit in the mail, and all you have to do is swab the inside of your mouth with a few cotton swabs and mail it back (they pay the shipping) and they contact you if you wind up being a potential match for somebody. In this instance I was chosen for my dad because of the specific type of cancer he has and the specific treatment they wanted to do, but it is very common for donors to give to complete strangers. What I just described above is just one form of treatment, and of course there are other more invasive procedures (before deciding on stem cells, there was talk of me donating my bone marrow which would have been several shots in the hip with a large needle); but you could potentially save somebody's life.

 

Typically they prefer to get donations from a "full match" donor (a stranger), but in this instance with the type of lymphoma my dad has they have found that using a "half match" (parent/sibling/child) usually works just as well and has a lower risk of the host body rejecting the new cells. With other forms of cancer, they prefer to use full match donors whenever possible. Here's an older Facebook post I made detailing it if anyone's interested. BTW, the "Mel" I refer to is my sister Melanie.

 

They want to try a clinical trial which utilizes a "half match" donor instead of a "full match" donor. The difference is a full match donor would be a stranger whereas a half match donor would be a parent, sibling or child of the patient. They want to do the half match option because this procedure is shown (against Lymphoma at least) that it works just as well with a half match donor and has less of a chance of graft vs host disease (where his body would reject the new cells it receives). Due to age restrictions (better to use someone less than 60 years old) this eliminated everyone except me, my sister and one of my dad's sisters. 

 

They prefer to use as young a donor as possible, and also prefer not to use women that have been pregnant (the female body produces a specific type of antibody after becoming pregnant that is not found in men) so this eliminates both my sister and my dad's sister leaving me as the best option. Over the past week, I have been "typed" and had a physical and according to the results I am a perfect "half match" donor for dad. All the test results came back excellent (nice to know I'm pretty healthy aside from being overweight) so now they are moving ahead.

 

Dad will have a radiation treatment starting this Wednesday, which will go until the 3rd. Once that is done, he will be in the hospital for about a week getting Chemotherapy conditioning (it's essentially round the clock chemo, which is why he has to stay in the hospital). 

On the 5th I will begin receiving daily growth factor shots which will make my body produce a massive number of baby white blood cells. I will get these shots daily for 5 days, and on the 5th day (Dec 9th) they will hook me up to a machine designed to harvest these cells from my blood. Basically I'll be hooked up to a centrifuge on both arms. The blood will come out of one arm, go into the centrifuge where the cells are harvested, and then the blood will go back into my body via the other arm. 

It's a pretty pain free procedure. The shots might make me a little achey but aside from that the risks are quite minimal. I'll be awake the whole time (though I can sleep if I want to) and will probably just be sitting there watching TV. This process will take about 4 hours or so. They have a target number of cells they want to harvest, so assuming for whatever reason they don't get enough the first day I will go in again the next day where they will do it again. After that, my part in this is finished. There is no real recovery time for me, I should feel perfectly normal after a day or two at which point I can resume day to day activities. I might feel a little sore afterwards but that should go away after a day.

Dad will get the cells they harvest from me on the 10th, then I believe he has to spend another week in the hospital before he can go home (actually, the apartment in Seattle since he needs to be close to the hospital just in case). It will be about a 100 day period while he recovers from this, though I believe after 30 days or so he will be allowed to come home for weekends. 

 

Dad will likely have to take some medications after the 100 days has expired but that won't be determined until closer to the end. An interesting little side note, my dad's blood type is A+ and mine is A- but after the transplant he will have the same blood type as me. 

From now until the procedure is over, dad will not have an immune system so it is very important he not be around anyone that is sick. This is why we are not having Thanksgiving or Christmas this year (plus he will likely be in the hospital during the holidays anyway and unable to come home to Marysville anyhow). If you are thinking of visiting him, I would advise against it just to be safe. If you've had a flu shot and for sure are not sick it might be OK but you would want to check with Melanie first. 

In the meantime, dad is still (obviously) unable to go to work so if anyone wants to help out Mel set up a Support account you can donate to. His insurance covers most of the costs of the treatment but there are still lots of other expenses (rent for the apartment in Seattle, etc). You can find it at https://www.youcaring.com/medical-f…/support-for-stan/209022

 

If you have any other questions feel free to ask either me or Mel, and you can also read her blog at http://www.stanscancerblog.com where she posts any new information we receive.

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I want to thank Perk and Swagbucks for allowing me to actually buy fairly decent Christmas presents for a few people this year.

I'm poor, without them it would have been DVDs out of the five dollar bin at Walmart for everyone.

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After having spent 55 of the past 70 days in the hospital (including the past 35 straight forcing him to miss Thanksgiving and Christmas), it looks like my dad will finally be released in a couple of days. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

I appear to have pulled off the job of a lifetime and pieced together a pretty sweet ass schedule despite being the newest bus driver at work.  Done every day before 7 pm!  Don't have to go in most days until 7-ish am!* one of my runs has a 45 minute layover in the middle of it, and two others have 10 minute breaks every damn trip!  Also, I get to drive my favorite route on Fridays!

 

*a 12 hour day is the hallmark of being a bus driver, though most include a 4 hour split somewhere in there.

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I have officially started school again! I am en route to obtaining a MBA. I love school.

 

We can't wait for you to enrich your fellow students' lives by deciding that you love designing obtuse social experiments more than you love school. 

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I have officially started school again! I am en route to obtaining a MBA. I love school.

 

We can't wait for you to enrich your fellow students' lives by deciding that you love designing obtuse social experiments more than you love school. 

 

 

Any suggestions as to how I can manipulate my online financial accounting class into a social media pop art experiment?

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Drove Emo Philips to and from his hotel to the Fairview Heights comedy club a few weekends ago and got to do a guest set on the Saturday late show.  Woo.  Here's the set:

 

I'm envious of you both for getting to meet EMO and for being pretty good yourself.  (Clearly, I haven't looked at this lately.)

 

Yesterday was the first day I spent with the girl I've been seeing when she was in a bad state and knew it. I've known since our second date that she had some mental health issues in her life (I freaked out on the "stuff" thread when she told me she was diagnosed borderline), but so do I.  It wasn't our best night out together, and I told her straight up when she first disclosed that I couldn't promise her that I would never be unable to cope.  But last night, which she described as 'the worst she's been in forever' and she was afraid for me to see her? I can cope with that. And knowing I can cope with that gives me hope for now.  Still can't promise I will never hit a breaking point, but I can promise not to be the asshole who shuts her out as soon as she has an off day.

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So I was on the radio the other night...in a surreal aspect, it was at the station where I worked for nine years.  It was weird being on the other side of the glass, so to speak.  We mostly talked comedy with a bit of wrestling.  I stuck around for hour two, but only for occasional chime-ins...the first hour is mostly me and the two hosts.  You can listen to the recording here if you're bored:

 

http://www.insidestl.com/insideSTLcom/RadioShows/BrothersonWhatever/tabid/323/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/20095/Brothers-on-Whatever-January-18-2016.aspx

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  • 2 weeks later...

I finished my stand up tour tonight. AWESOME! The crowds got bigger each night. Tonight I did 65 minutes with no opener and killed it. I think I'm going to like this. I already have clubs waiting on dates for the next tour and two shows booked in March.

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Forgot to post here, and I know it's wrestling related, but the first Project 42 show in Seattle went off without a hitch last Saturday, and was honestly one of the most fun shows I've been a part of and one of the best crowds I've ever worked in front of.  One of my last manager appearances and it was great.

 

I'd lost my spark for a while and that show gave it back.

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I finished my stand up tour tonight. AWESOME! The crowds got bigger each night. Tonight I did 65 minutes with no opener and killed it. I think I'm going to like this. I already have clubs waiting on dates for the next tour and two shows booked in March.

 

Very cool.  Hosted two shows last night at the Fairview Heights comedy club and it seems like the club manager wants to prep me for middle-act/feature work.

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I finished my stand up tour tonight. AWESOME! The crowds got bigger each night. Tonight I did 65 minutes with no opener and killed it. I think I'm going to like this. I already have clubs waiting on dates for the next tour and two shows booked in March.

 

Very cool.  Hosted two shows last night at the Fairview Heights comedy club and it seems like the club manager wants to prep me for middle-act/feature work.

 

Good on ya!

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Finally got my Grandpa's inheritance nonsense sorted out. The lawyer was trying to claim he wouldn't release any  money until my youngest cousin turned of age...in 2026. Luckily my uncle intervened and fixed the damn mess, so I can finally get some old debt paid off and breathe a little easier. This is why I plan to go out with nothing but the clothes on my back...or even less than that, if I really go out the way I want.

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