Bone Marrow Used for Something Other Than a BMT

The story below caught my eye today for a few reasons.  I initially clicked because my husband was wounded in Iraq, but as I read on I was really taken with the story from the cancer experience in my life.  My brother had a BMT (Bone Marrow Transplant) and I was his donor.  It was the only option after he failed chemo, other than doing chemo again.  In this story, the veteran was given a pair of donated arms with the matching bone marrow.  The bone marrow is so important to the medical success of this case because the veteran's body will recognize the new arms as foreign objects and try to suppress the attachment.  By giving the veteran the matching bone marrow, his body will hopefully accept the new arms without putting up an immune system fight against the new arms.  When the body rejects the bone marrow and arms, this is called GVHD (Graft-versus-host-disease).

My bone marrow was an excellent match when compared to my brother's.  But even then my brother still dealt with complications of GVHD, though eventually his body did accept my bone marrow as his own.  His blood type is mine now, he has curly auburn hair, and other traits of the donor (me).  I wonder for this vet, if it all works out, what kind of traits or any he will have from his donor.  More than anything though, I am so thankful that bone marrow can be used for more than just cancer treatments.  I pray this man's body accepts everything just fine so he can have a 2nd chance at life like my brother has.

If cancer hadn't of happened in my brother's life, this story honestly wouldn't make any sense to me.  I certainly wouldn't understand how amazing and basically miraculous the science behind this procedure is.  It sobers a person, to know these kinds of details.  To know how fragile life.

http://news.yahoo.com/soldier-lost-4-limbs-double-arm-transplant-171015152.html

A Positive, Yet Painful Perspective

This is my official first post on my blog today.  I've never blogged before, so here's to learning and doing something new!  If you've read the "What this is All About" section, then you should fairly well understand that I'll be blogging fairly often about different things that catch my eye and how I feel my cancer sibling perspective shapes those things.  I think this will be a fun way of expressing my cancer sibling perspective, but also a serious time to reflect on how I allow an experience or set of circumstances to shape my worldview.  I know my cancer worldview is very much a part of me; it's embedded deep in my bones you could say.  Knowing this makes me cautious about non-nonchalantly allowing anything to impact my worldview.  It's a serious business, I think, allowing things to shape the standard in which you will live and judge life through.  It's very hard to not let things influence you, especially in the moment, but that doesn't mean I shouldn't always be cautious and objective.  I always want to ask, "Will this shape my worldview in a negative or positive way?"  13 years into the cancer journey of my brother's life, I think I can safely say that it has had a very positive impact on my life and worldview in the long run.  The run has been painful, but a very good learning experience.