By BETH ADES
As I lay wide-awake at night in my hospital bed post-transplant, I couldn’t help but imagine what my life would be like in a week, a month, a year. I’ve always been a bit of a planner and not even the new German DNA in me could take that away. Whether this fantasizing was a way to distract me from my current bleak situation or destiny, I’ll never know.
In those never-ending sleepless nights, I reflected on just how many people it had taken to keep me alive through my myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) journey. The memories of long and grueling days in the transfusion chair were still fresh in my mind. Even the frequency of my 85 platelet and blood transfusions couldn’t suppress the overwhelming gratitude I felt as each bag was hooked up and the drip of the life-saving crimson made its way into my body, giving me time and hope until I could receive my stem-cell transplant. I couldn’t help but think about my blood donors. Who were they? What made them want to donate? Do they know the impact they have made? I would pray for them, asking God to fill their lives with all the blessings they had given me.
Those of us in the transplant world have memorized our blood types, and often survivors own a new blood type. But I have realized that aside from the eight major blood types, we are all exactly the same on the inside. And for all the things that seemingly make us different… turns out, we aren’t. Blood doesn’t care about any of our differences. I can think of nothing more beautiful than taking a part of yourself to share with someone who so desperately needs it.
The stirring in me to pass on all the kindness I had received was met with my deep-rooted planning gene – a blood drive and bone marrow registry event. As my first rebirthday, also known as a Second Birthday, approached, I contacted Life Serve, the blood donation center in my state, and the National Marrow Donor Program, NMDP for bone marrow registry cheek swab kits. Celebrating my first rebirthday with blood donors was something I will never forget. And the event had a near record-breaking turnout! It was amazing. When Life Serve asked if I would be interested in hosting annual blood drives on my rebirthdays, without hesitation I said YES! My third rebirthday was one for the books. Life Serve arranged for me to meet two of my platelet donors. One donor even lived in my small town, which was mind-blowing to me to think that I had been walking around and could have bumped into a person that saved my life. The experience was surreal and difficult to put into words. I held each of them so tightly as we hugged and cried as I thanked them for saving me. Both of my donors are even more amazing than I had imagined them to be. They met my family and witnessed just how far their generosity had gone. These people are my absolute heroes and will forever be a part of my story.
