Stem Cell Donor. My sister Rina is more than ready…

How exactly do you extract someone’s stem cell from the body? It’s easy to answer but tough to explain, especially to people who are not used to medical terms. What makes it harder to explain is because, even up until now, this is still quite a rare topic for people to discuss. 

In a nut shell, the process is similar to any blood donor activity, however, there are several ways to get this done. First and the most simple one is thru our vein. Very small amounts of stem cells are available in our vein. We can extract the stem cell with exactly the same process as regular blood donor. I heard the medical term for this process is PBSC (Peripheral Blood Stem Cell). This may be the most preferred way to donor your stem cell, however, this is NOT the way doctors want to collect them. They always want to be able to get the most stem cells available from each donor within a single extraction process, and to achieve that, doctors always go to the source…..bone marrow.

Bone marrow is like the factory of stem cells, so whenever you tap into the main source, you are guaranteed to get abundant supply. And since in every Bone Marrow Transplant (a.k.a Stem Cell Transplant) you need both quality and quantity of the stem cells, heading straight to bone marrow seems to be way to go. I’ve also heard that you can go for the hip bone. But either way, it’s a fast but a bit painful process for the donor.

From preparation to the finish line, doctors would only need 1 hour max. Most donors will be put under general anaesthesia if the cells are to be extracted from the bone marrow. Why? because when they start to suck your blood out, you will not be able to withstand the pain. If they extract only 10 cc, then you can survive (I’ve been there before several times), more than that, your scream will wake people up from 5 blocks away. My doctor say that he will extract maximum of 800 cc of my sister’s blood.

Ok…. enough with medical terms. Now what’s happened to my sister Rina lately?

Since last Tuesday (Apr. 15), after the blood test declared that she’s virus free, HIV free, Hepatitis free (Thank you Jesus), she’s been taking few oral medicines as well as Nepogen. Nepogen is a medicine which promotes your marrow to produce much more stem cell, however it is not administered orally. It must be injected under your skin. She needs to take 5 Nepogen prior to extraction, each with 12 hour interval. As this writing is made, she has 1 injection left to go. Doctor also said that her marrow, based on the test result, was in a very very healthy condition. (Coincidence? I call that grace from God)

Tomorrow early morning at precisely 7.30 AM (Singapore time – Apr. 19), she will be admitted to Gleneagles Operating Theater for the extraction. It would be a 1-hour process, but overall she would have to stay in the hospital for 4 hours before being safely discharged.

Any sign of hesitation, fear, doubt from my sister? Not a bit. She’s one tough individual. Doctor has previously explained in detail to us of the whole process, including how huge the needle is…. (you won’t believe how big and long that needle is), but again, she is one very determined and focus donor, she’s a strong woman, and above all……… she is my sister. She has made the whole family proud by knowing that she has made any necessary preparation and disciplined herself from the day she was declared to be a perfect match for me.

What has been the driving force behind all of her actions? Simply….. love. You can call it family love, a sister love, or whatever it is, for me, basically it is love. Love conquers all, right?

Everybody has been praying for her process tomorrow. We are more than confident that everything will be okay and smooth. God is with us.