Easiest way to change your bloodtype

Yesterday was a good day.  I had one of my favorite nurses, Nicole.  She’s a goofball (in the best way).  I got 2 units of blood transfused and there were many vampire/Twilight jokes floating around my room J  John was able to come visit for a few hours and I got to chat on the phone with several friends/family.  Your phone calls, texts, emails and facebook messages totally brighten my days! 

I met with the new oncologist, Dr. Liel, today (Kaiser oncologists round for a week at a time).  My new doc is short in stature, but I have no doubt that she gets things done (she strikes me as a little powerhouse).  Today we talked about the “game plan” for the pending bone marrow transplant.  She is starting the conversation with the Colorado Blood Cancer Institute docs so that we can begin the process of testing my blood and looking for a match.  The testing is called “HLA typing” and it is done via a cheek swab or a blood test.  We talked about how my brother, Kyle, is my best chance at being a match (biological siblings have about a 25-30% chance of matching).  Kyle and I will both have our blood typed and (fingers crossed) we’ll be all set to move forward with the bone marrow donation process.  However, if Kyle isn’t a match then my docs will move to the National Bone Marrow Registry to see if we can find a match there (about a 40% chance of finding a match this way).   

For anyone who is interested in getting tested to see if you might be a match for me (or anyone really), its EASY.  You can go to:  http://marrow.org/Join/Join_the_Registry.aspx  And as totally cliché as this sounds, you can ABSOLUTELY make a difference and save a life. 

Fun facts I’ve learned about my pending bone marrow transplant:

1.      I will potentially have a different blood type once I get my donor’s marrow/cells.  (That strikes me as totally nuts that I could have a different blood type than the one I was born with!)

2.      I will likely get my donor’s allergies.  Sure hope my donor isn’t allergic to peaches, dogs, wine or chocolate J lol - Chellie