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| Nope, this is not some catchy phrase for another dating website. It's for National Morrow Donow Program (www.marrow.org or www.bethematch.org). I thought, I put this up because, recently, I have been seeing lots and lots of high profile articles in WSJ, NYTimes, and CNN to raise awareness with bone marrow donorship.
I really do encourage people to be part of the database. I am in a unique position to talk about this because I was a match and I donated my bone marrow. My story is below.
Before moving to the donation story, a couple of things I learned about donating bone marrow that is worth mentioning:
1). Bone marrow extraction is performed under general anesthesia (i.e. you'll be asleep)
2). Bone marrow is not extracted from your spine. It is extracted fromyour hip bone, which is far from your spine, so there is no risk of paralysis.
3). Painless procedure.
4). There's less than 10% chance that you'll be a match.
5). Ethnic minorities are severely underrepresented.
6). People of mix ethnicity are extremely underrepresented and harder to find a match for.
Another interesting thing I learned is the science of how donors and recipients are matched. A match is determined by a match in Human Leukocyte Antigen (HLA), which is the genetic makeup of your immune system. HLA is different for different ethnic groups and race.
I was able to find out my HLA codes (this info is available after you sign up). I used Wikipedia and another public database to see a better picture of my ethnic background. I was able to confirm that I am Chinese and Caucasian, but surprisingly I am also Siberian with genes more common among Mongolian. I find that funny because some of you know that I have a passion for Mongolian people. I guess that explains the passion and why I act like a barbarian at times. :)
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Dated 3/26/2009
In about a week, on Thursday 4/2, I will be undergoing a surgery at Stanford Medical Center. The surgery is not life threatening, and I am actually quite healthy. However, I would like to ask for your prayers.
What is the surgery for? Well, I have been selected by National Marrow Donor Program (www.nmdp.org) as the best donor match for a 6-year old boy. I was not told anything else about the recipient other than the fact that he is 6 years old, of a mixed race (i.e. a mutt like me), and suffering from a genetic defect that prevents his immune system to appropriately generate white blood cells. Those who suffer from this genetic defects, Without a bone marrow transplant, will rarely live beyond puberty.
How did I get selected? About two years ago, my church (GrX) held a bone marrow registry drive to help an unrelated recipient. As a result of that drive, I am now part of the registry. This past December, I received a phone call from NMDP. It told me that I am a potential donor match for this 6-year old. To verify that I am indeed the best match, NMDP asked me to undergo additional tests. The results of these tests concluded that I am the best match.
For the past 1.5 month I have been examined by both my personal physician and NMDP's doctors to determine whether it is safe for me to undergo the marrow extraction surgery. All of them concluded that it is safe to do so. I have also been preparing for this surgery by taking some medication to ensure that I am healthy and can swiftly recuperate from the surgery. All that is left to do is the actual surgery.
Contrary to popular belief, the surgery is very safe. Prior to this event, I had thought that bone marrow is extracted from the spine. The truth is that bone marrow is extracted from the hip bone and is nowhere close to the spine. Any risk of spinal injury or paralysis is non-existent. The doctors assured me that they do not go anywhere near the spinal cord. What I've learned is that any of the risk is not due to the procedure, but rather due to the anesthesia. The risk of any complication is between 1:10,000 to 1:1,000,000. Luckily, I have my age and health to bolster my risk factor closer to the latter value. Also, the procedure takes about 45 mins and should put me under less than 2 hours. For comparison, that's about the same amount of time of general anesthesia for appendicitis, tonsil, or wisdom tooth surgery. I should be around the 1:1,000,000 value. Still, I would like to ask your prayers to bolster my risk factor beyond 1:1,000,000. One to INFINITY and beyond would be more than awesome! :)
The doctors told me that about 1 liter (i.e. two bottles of Snapple) of marrow will be extracted from me. Once the doctors surgery is done, I am told that my extracted marrow will then be FedEx-ed overnight to the boy. The following day, he will get his surgery. Please pray for him too.
I ask you to please pray for me for the following:
-For God's protection and success over the surgery (i.e. no complications, wisdom to the doctors, etc...)
-For fast recovery time and
-For least amount of pain (during and after the surgery)
-For my family (i.e. my mom, my dad, my sister, and R) not to be stressed out with concerns of my safety
-For me not to be stressed out about this. So far, I haven't been too stressed out. However, I do have a phobia about things that belongs in my body extracted from me.
-In some rare cases, if necessary, a second extraction might be required. Please pray that this will not be the case.
-Pray for protection for the little boy between now and his surgery. At this time, his immune system is "erased" and "reseted" to prepare for my marrow.
-Pray for successful procedure for the little boy.
-I don't know the boy's and his family's faith, but pray that they may see the glory of Christ through this.
It's been an interesting and a learning experience for me. Having the surgery close to Easter reminds me of how much Christ loved us. My phobia helped me realized that Christ must be really scared to go on that cross. Fully knowing the amount of pain involved (and without anesthesia), Jesus must had an extraordinary amount of courage and an undying commitment to go up to that cross so that we may live. In a way I am blessed to be able to participate in this, because it helps me to know more about Christ.
Thanks guys. God bless you.
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Dated 4/2/2009
I just want to let you know that the surgery was successful. I checked in this morning at 5:30AM PST, and went into surgery at around 7:30AM. After waking up, I noticed the time was 9:30AM. So, the procedure must have taken no more than 90 minutes.
R told me that the my marrow was placed into a Small Rubbermaid Cooler and left Stanford Medical Center almost immediately. I am also told that a courier is bringing it as a carry-on item in a plane to the boy. My understanding is that tomorrow the transplant will occur.
How do I feel right now? My butt is a little bit sore at the moment. It feels like someone pushed a grocery cart and the cart hit me on my butt. Luckily, it's not too painful. If anything it's more of a discomfort. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to stand up without feeling dizzy. As a result, I am staying overnight at the hospital. However, I should be able to leave by tomorrow. Currently, I'm also having a borderline fever. So, I'm trying to reduce my temperature.
I would like to extend my thanks to all of you. Your responses to my surgery have been nothing short of encouraging. That made me feel confident going into the surgery. I am more than grateful to all of you.
Special thanks to members of my immediate family. My mom, my dad, my sister and R have been very supportive throughout the entire process. They've been checking up on me for almost the entire day. R has been putting extra efforts to make my stay as comfortable as possible. I really appreciate all that they have done.
Please continue to pray for a speedy recovery and the pain to go away. Please also pray for a successful surgery for the boy.
Thanks for everything.
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It's been a month since my surgery, and I want to give you an update. I have fully recovered from the surgery, and I have been doing my normal day to day activities.
I also spoke to my case worker today, and she gave me an update on the little boy. She was told that his body is accepting the engraftment and is doing well overall. She was also told that he has some health issues but as soon as these resolve he can go home.
Once again, thank you for your support and prayers.
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| According to the article below I am supposed to be a Darwinian success. Socially it's not necessarily true. Consider the analogy stated in the article below: "If a blue jay sees a normal-looking salamander, it will eat it. But if the same bird sees a freak, it may let it go." 
Applying this analogy to High School social setting: "If a bully sees a normal-looking student, it will not beat him up. But if the same bully sees a freak (e,g, nerd), it may beat him up." 
For the record, I never got beat up or picked on. Anyway, for a freak I did extremely well because I won R's heart (the most beautiful girl!!!) 
Freaks Survive Because They Are StrangeIf a blue jay sees a normal-looking salamander, it will eat it. But if the same bird sees a freak, it may let it go. University of Tennessee researcher Benjamin Fitzpatrick says this discovery, which his team reports in the open access journal BMC Ecology, suggests why rare traits persist in a population. Predators detect common forms of prey more easily, the scientists figure. The majority that share a common look are always on the dinner menu, while oddballs are left to reproduce. "Maintenance of variation is a classic paradox in evolution because both selection and drift tend to remove variation from populations," Fitzpatrick explained today. "If one form has an advantage, such as being harder to spot, it should replace all others. Likewise, random drift [genetic change that occurs by chance] alone will eventually result in loss of all but one form when there are no fitness differences. There must therefore be some advantage that allows unusual traits to persist." The researchers placed a selection of food-bearing model salamanders into a field for six days, with striped models outnumbering the unstriped by nine to one, or vice versa. On test days, the numbers were evened out. In each case, Blue Jays were more likely to attack the models that had been most prevalent over the previous six-day period. "We believe that the different color forms represent different ways of blending in on the forest floor," Fitzpatrick said. "Looking for something cryptic takes both concentration and practice. Predators concentrating on finding striped salamanders might not notice unstriped ones." | | |
| With the Swine Flu, since I am pretty close to the epicenter, I'm taking some extra precautions (e.g. unnecessary visit to areas with high concentration of people who might be exposed to people who recently traveled from Mexico i.e. certain ethnic group, and washing my hands).
So should we not eat pork because Aporkalypse Now or Ham of Darkness is upon us?
Nawww, I can't resist a good roast pork, especially Balinese Babi Guling.
Side Note: I am actually a survivor of SARS, because I traveled to Singapore in 2003 during the peak of SARS. Traveling during SARS was weird. I have never been in a flight to Asia with a 777 at 25% capacity (i.e. only 75 people in a 300 people plane).
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| Ever wondered how surveys and polls are taken, and who were surveyed or polled? Besides phone surveys, a legion of field interviewers is dispatched across the US to go door to door interviewing people. Such interviewer came over to our house, and she was looking for a male interviewee. At the time I wasn't at home at that moment, but R signed me up because I (we) will be paid $40 for 20 minutes of my time. That's one of the easiest and fastest way to earn $40. The only way to earn $40 in 20 minutes is to earn $240,000/year. That's a pretty good deal.
The interviewer came by yesterday, and it took only 20 minutes to do the interview. I received the $40 upon completing the survey.
The survey is collected by a company called the "American Institute of Consumer Studies" (www.aicsinfo.com), and it is collecting surveys about the effectiveness of newspapers, magazines, TV, radio and the internet. According to my interviewer, the survey is not sponsored/commissioned by a specific company or trade group, but rather it is collected by AICS to be sold to any interested parties. Anyway, I thought that was interesting and, again, an easy way to earn some extra cash.
As an added bonus, the interviewer asked me whether I want to fill out a booklet of surveys. If the booklet is filled, I get another $40. Cash is king, so of course I can't refuse.
The booklet contains almost everything. It has questions ranging from every grocery items to automotive to politics to media to personality and attitudes. It is 8.5x11 and has over 110 pages of survey. Here's what the booklet looks like.
It took me a good 3 hours to complete the survey. With the $40 reward, completing the booklet is like earning $26,666.67/year, which is about 10 times smaller than the 20 min. survey. Anyway, cash is king, so I completed it. Extra $80 in the bank doesn't hurt these days.
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| Do you recognize this character from Disney/Pixar "Cars"?
I don't either. Her name is "Susie Coupe", and she is a Disney character, but she never appeared in "Cars". Compared to Lightning McQueen, she's over 50 years old. She was featured in an eponymous animated short back in 1951. It's interesting to note that the basic layout (e.g. mouth, nose and eyes) of the character design for "Cars" came from "Susie Coupe". Here's the full animated short (courtesy of Youtube). Enjoy. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7pxap-M_--k&NR=1 | | |
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