« January 27, 2005 | Home | January 29, 2005 »
January 28, 2005
By Neil | January 28, 2005
Hi all…We have established a “Designated Donor” account with San Diego Blood Bank (www.bloodbank.org). You can donate blood/platelets in Sam’s name by mentioning either:
- Sam Hutchison
- SH10 which is Sam’s code
A few more items:
- I truly am humbled by how many people want to donate and help but the catch is that the more critical need would be platelets, not blood. If Sam’s chemo starts Monday/Tuesday, the oncologist estimates that he may need platelets with 4 to 5 days or so. The catch with platelet donations is that I believe the only last for 5 days whereas blood donations last for 42 days (I think). So, I think the best gameplan is for everyone to hang tight until I get word from the oncologist that Sam will need platelets and then your donations will be AWESOME!
- BAE Systems is having 2 blood mobiles here on 2/15 but you CAN NOT donate for Sam at the blood mobile. You have to make an appointment at any of the locations in San Diego and they have 9 pheresis machines (platelet machines)
- Sam is O+ so both O+ and O- donor can donate. If the oncologist specifies that he wants only O+, I will let everyone know.
- Platelet donation takes about 90 minutes minimum so please plan on that amount of time
- Because Sam’s immune system will be suppressed due to chemo, you need to be CMV negative. CMV is a virus that no ones knows about but over 50% of adults carry. It’s not sexually-transmitted or attached to any stigmas, it just is what it is. A link about CMV is here: http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/diseases/cmv.htm
To summarize:
- Whether you are O+ or O-, please DONATE since it’s just a good thing. If you donate and mention Sam’s name, he gets a credit (I have no idea what for) even if you have A, B, or AB blood. San Diego is facing a blood shortage so donation is a great thing
- The ideal candidate for platelet donations are:
- O+ or O-
- High-iron (but SDBB screens for this)
- CMV negative
How do you know if you are CMV negative? SDBB will test your blood and you can call them, speak to a charge nurse in their pheresis department and she’ll tell you if you are positive or negative. The charge nurse number is 619-400-8218.
MY GOAL:
I need to build a database of ideal candidates so as intrusive as this may seem, if you choose to help Sam and donate blood, I need you to let me know if you are CMV negative since I need to know who I can call when Sam is in a tight spot. I feel like this is an invasion of privacy but I am learning that cancer is what it is.I want to thank everyone again from the bottom of my heart! I can not say enough how stunned I am by the passionate outpouring of support from BAE Systems, friends, family, and even the legendary San Diego based golf tour, the PB Pub Tour
Topics: Progress Reports | Comments Off on January 28, 2005
Comments are closed.