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Putting
a Face to a Cell:
Less than 12
months after the infusion, I met the man whose marrow brought medical
miracles |
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Human
beings come in all shapes and sizes. Although all humans claim their own
true uniqueness,  there
remains very little in the genetic pool that sets us apart. What I have
seen and what I have experienced is truly what makes me one of a
kind.
Pete
LaCock is one of a kind man. I can't describe deeply enough a man of
generosity without mentioning Pete. We would all like the claim our
ourselves altruists but if we did we would have to put ourselves on the
same echelon as a man whose cells help to sustain life.
Find
out how to Join the Registry
in your area. For more information on bone marrow donation, visit the The
National Marrow Donor Program.
Lymphoma,
and then on with life...
Survivor Story by Matt Terry >> |
My Thoughts the Night
Before I met my Donor
Matt
Terry
May 6, 2002-- 10:47 PM
After
several months of correspondence, beginning with the first letter I so nervously
let hang above my hospital bed to the torment of my family, I will meet my
unrelated bone marrow donor tomorrow. I received my first letter only several
days after the infusion of cells. Overwhelmed by the idea of donorship and
unable to put all of my emotions together, I pinned the letter to the peg board
in my room.
I received several more letters before I finally wrote him a response in March.
Since that time we have been writing back and forth, and through his easy clues
I was able to determine his identity. I made that obvious to him in my letter,
and so of course further curiosity on his end arose to the point where he made a
request to the National Marrow Donor Program that we should meet before the
standard 12 month policy.
We both agreed to release our information, and last Saturday I leisurely gave
him a call. The emotions were frightening and one in my position doesn't really
know what to think. The call lasted about thirty minutes, and it felt like I was
talking to a friend. In saying this I am no way trying to be maudlin, but only
to express the similarities in his voice to an "always-on" good friend
of mine, Brian.
Tonight he flew in to California, and he got tickets for the Laker playoff game
tomorrow night at Staples Center. Like I said before, the emotions that are
gushing through my head are overwhelming. In a sense, I feel surprisingly numb.
I am afraid that I being placed in a situation that I am nothing more than a
sick and needy child. Bone marrow transplant patients that receive unrelated
cells often go through a grueling search, as my family experienced, only to be
left slim options in hopes of a 6 out of 6 HLA match. Only one in 20 million
people on earth could match up this way. I question this feeling that I am
desperate to him, and replace it with the idea that this man has brought me a
miracle, if not with perfect health as I am still in treatment, but with life.
I hope not to feel like the sick boy in the bubble, but just as I am, a man
fortunate to be alive. I do, in a way, wish that I would have never been placed
in this situation because of my health, but my curiosity about my match is truly
overwhelming. Hey, we have to share something in common, don't we?
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