Date Donated: June 30, 1999

Notes: She was recruited at a drive hosted by CLLF and co-sponsored with the Asian Pacific American Medical Students Association (APAMSA).  

My Experience as a Donor.

When the Red Cross told me over the phone that I was the best match, I felt like I had won the lottery. I had beaten the odds of the enormous genetic variability andwas given a chance to help save someone's life. I could help a 16-year old boy live, long before I earned my M.D. degree. It was exhilarating.

On the day of the bone marrow harvesting, I laid in bed all day to put pressure on the wounds of my hip. As I drifted in and out of sleep, I thought about my stem cells swimming in his blood. I prayed that they were getting along with his cells, and that no graft vs. host reaction was occurring. In a strange way I was a part of him now, growing and proliferating in this marrow and he was indirectly a part of me.

I learned the vulnerability of being a patient by calling the nurse over each time I had to empty my bladder. It was embarrassing and difficult to use a bedpan, to throw up each time I ate and to endure the stiff back pain. Then I wondered about Jesus suffering and dying on the cross, to restore my relationship with God and to let me live. He must have been joyful because even I was filled with joy and smiles knowing that my small suffering was winning for this boy a new life.

I thought about him reading my letter, his family cheering him on, his dreams and goals unfolding before him. And I thanked God for giving me the privilege of donating my bone marrow, allowing me to love this boy I had never met and allowing me to grow as a person and as a future doctor.