This is from Jamie Dad's grandaughter, I talked to Dad about some of kids getting tested and he actually hadn't even thought about it. And when I mentioned this he thought it was a good idea regardless. So if you want to you can contact Jamie to get the details. Here is the post from Jamie.
As much as the doctors say that Grandpa's children and grandchildren are unlikely to be matches, stranger things have happened. I work in organ donation where organs are allocated every day based on many aspects, one of which being antigens. I'm not saying I am an expert by any means, nor am I saying that I know more than the doctors BUT since I work in this field every single day I feel like I have a pretty good understanding of what we are up against. It is my feeling and belief that anyone in the family who wants to be tested as a donor for Grandpa ~or~ to be a donor for someone else in his same situation (believe me, they are out there), I would encourage you to do so. The cost to be tested against Grandpa's antigens alone and done locally in Utah is $355. The cost to join the National Marrow Donor Program to be among the 12,000 U.S. donors is $55. I know money is tight for everyone right now but I can't think of anything that is more important to me. I don't know if anyone reads these comments and I would hope that I haven't offended anyone, I just feel such desperation to find someone to help Grandpa
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
Hi Shannon!
I also discovered that there is a place in Oregon that will run the HLA test for $110 so a little cheaper than the Utah location and still only run against Grandpa. It's still highly unlikely that any family members would match but at this point who knows who could be a match. It could be his next door neighbor, the bagger at the grocery store or one of the grandkids!
Any new updates?
Post a Comment