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Cards and notes can be sent to Marla and Richard Robey and
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BONE MARROW DONOR UPDATE 4/8/04 Marla reports that the four possible bone marrow donors have been tested and that two of them have been eliminated. The other two donors are not perfect matches - one is an 8 out of 10 match and the other is a 9 out of 10 match. The doctors are going back to the Bone Marrow Registry to look for more possible donors. BLOOD PLATELET UPDATE Rachel needs A-negative blood platelets!!! A blood platelet donor process is different from donating blood. The process takes about 3 hours and has to be scheduled by the Red Cross. Blood platelets have a 72 hour shelf life - and cannot be stored longer than that. If you are A- Negative and interested in donating for Rachel, please contact the Red Cross at 1-888-905- 3344 (toll free) to be put on a list to be called as we need additional platelets. You will be screened for the donation and it is possible that you may not be able to donate - even if you took an aspirin the day before. Your A-negative blood platelets can help save Rachel! Your contribution in this drive is so appreciated!
When a perfect donor has been selected and Rachel is ready for the transplant, she is will have to go in the hospital about 10 days before at which time she will have very aggressive chemo to take her counts down to NOTHING. The transplant will then be done and she will be in the hospital for about 40 days. After that she can go home and return to the hospital every day for about 5 hours for months. This process will take about a year. During this time we worry about infections, viruses, fungus, rejection and graft-verses-host disease. Rejection is where Rachel rejects the new marrow and graft-verses-host disease is when the new marrow rejects Rachel. This will be long and hard for her and she will not be able to attend school next year. She will be able to have visitors at times but can not be around a lot of people. If you are interested in being a bone marrow donor, please contact the Red Cross. Become a donor and possibly be the one to save someone else’s life.
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