About Me

My Goal: Run the Boston Marathon on April 15, 2019 with the Dana-Farber Marathon Challenge. Raise $17,000 (or more!) where 100% of funds raised benefit the Claudia Adams Barr Program in Innovative Basic Cancer Research. I run in honor of my friend Chris Davie who is battling brain cancer. I also run in honor for my friend RJ and his continued cancer-free life, in memory of Heather Thomson, and for other family and friends who are or have battled cancer. Together we can help Dana-Farber Cancer Institute reach the ultimate finish line: a world without cancer

Barr Program Impact Statements

Barr Program Impact Statements

Immunotherapies: New Ways to Activate the Immune System—An important area of cancer research asks why the human body's defense systems do not always attack and destroy tumors as they form. Funded by the Claudia Adams Barr Program, Glenn Dranoff, MD, discovered complex regulatory pathways in the human immune system that cancers exploit in order to escape destruction. Reversal of these effects can lead to the development of vaccines against cancer, like Provenge for prostate cancer. This research has also enabled the development of immune-activating drugs such as ipilimumab, which showed striking effects in melanoma in a trial led by Dana-Farber scientists and is now approved by the Food and Drug Administration for treatment.

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Donation Complete!

Today is 24 hours post-PBSC donation and it was a bit different than expected.  As mentioned, the preparation shots started on Friday and at that point the medical director stated that they expected the donation to be a 1 day donation and take about 5 hrs.  Flash forward to Tues AM, starting the donation at 8am and thus expecting to be done at 1pm.  Well, I had to be difficult and screw those plans up, but I'll get there.  After getting to the donation center at 7am and getting another set of preparation shots (which increase circulating stem cells during the donation), I entered the donation room and had more attention from the 3 nurses than I knew what to do with.  They were great and got everything all set up by 8am.

The donation started by separating 0.3L of plasma and from there, the PBSC collection started.  During this time, some initial results from profiling the blood came in and the white cell count was low compared to what was expected.  Nothing to do but continue the donation at this point.  At 1030, the stem cell counts came back and were also lower than expected.  This made me wonder whether it would be a 1 day donation or become a 2 day donation.  Again, nothing to do but let the machine continue to collect cells until a decision came from the director and transplant team about the best option.  Finally, this came around 12.15pm and it was not what we nor the nurse expected. I was asked if I could stay on the machine for ~7hrs?!  After hearing the options and deciding on the extended donation, lunch was ordered and we kept on moving along.  In the end, 30L of blood was circulated through the apheresis machine and ~0.75L of cells and plasma was collected for the patient.  I don't have any more of an update but was told that we met a goal of the transplant team.  Hopefully it can now help the kid.


For me, the process was quite tiring.  I couldn't move my left arm for the 7hrs nor do too much with my right arm since the return needle was in that forearm.  Afterward, a nice 2hr nap helped rejuvenate me, though some aches and pains remain through today.  After a long day, many thanks go out to friends and family for support leading up to and during the donation and to Amy for trekking to Providence and being there during the donation.  If I get any more of an update, I'll be sure to update the blog.

Next posts are likely to be the start of DFMC 2013 training where this donation and my experience last year will carry me through both training and the race day!




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