Save Donovan Sands

Okay, New Englanders (and everyone else too). This Sunday there is a bone marrow drive at Lasell College in Newton, MA to help find a bone marrow donor for 8 year-old Donovan Sands. Donovan has Dyskeratosis Congenita, a variant of which disease caused my Aplastic Anemia. Donovan will not survive without a transplant, and neither would I have. And having lived through the fear and drama of such a thing, I can barely bring myself to ponder the same situation for an 8 year-old and his parents.

So if you are in the area, please go give a cheek swab (no needles, I promise!) and see if you might be his match. If you aren't local, please consider registering with the National Marrow Donor Program. Even if you're not a match for Donovan, you might still save someone. My donor, Jaime, was on the registry because she attended a drive for a family friend. She wasn't a match for her, but she was for me. Sheer luck and circumstance (and HLA-typing) brought us together. I KNOW that Donovan Sands has a match. Everyone in the world has a match. But if you're not on the registry, we don't know you're there. You're sitting on one measly pint of stem cells that might keep an 8 year-old alive.

So. Off your bone marrow-rich hindquarters--and hie thee to a drive. Thank you.

From the Newton TAB:

Donovan Sands is an 8-year-old who is suffering from a highly rare, but terminal genetic disease. He has Dyskeratosis Congenital (also called Zinsser-Cole-Engman syndrome), a malady affecting fewer than 200 people worldwide. The disease is curable, but Donovan’s only chance for survival is a bone marrow transplant and, so far, no matches have been found in the Bone Marrow Donor Program registry.

Donovan’s family and friends are teaming with Dana-Farber Cancer Institute to hold bone marrow drives. There will be a drive at Lasell College (De Witt Hall), 80 Maple St., Newton, on Sunday, Sept. 28, noon-4 p.m.

The screening process is painless and takes only a couple of minutes. Human Leukcyte Antigen tissue type is what the donor program registry uses to match patients to donor. The donor’s HLA is identified by testing a sample from the inside of a cheek with a swab to come up with HLA type. Testing is done for potential donors between 18- and 60 years old. Potential donors who are not available on drive dates can still be screened. A mail-in test kit can be provided by the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Call Dana Farber at 866-875-3324, or e-mail nmdpdonor@partners.org.

Donors need to be willing to donate to any patient in need and meet the health guidelines. Donors with diverse racial or ethnic backgrounds are especially needed. To learn more about the National Marrow Donor Program, visit www.marrow.org.

Rosie Ruiz Redux

Today was the Dana Farber Marathon Walk. Team Haggis raised an insane amount of money by walking an insane number of miles...except for me. I (along with Bambina in a jogging stroller) joined the party with 3 miles left to go.

So: Congratulations, rock stars! Thanks for letting me bask in your glow. And thanks to everyone who donated to the cause. I promise you your money will be well-spent. Like the picture says: I'm Living Proof.

I Need a Style Bailout

I’ll spare you a post about the impending collapse of the American financial system (how does Four More Years sound to you now?), and instead talk about my ongoing efforts to stop being a fashion victim. Maybe I’m just trying to comfort myself as I watch my retirement savings be vaporized; who knows? But in any case, my ongoing appearance upgrade after 18 months of wearing sweats and being sick (albeit taking into account the new financial realities) has been revitalized. Why the sudden effort? Because this morning Bambina told me, as I dressed to take her to preschool and then go walk around the indoor track, “Mama, don’t wear that! You look like Sandra T.” * [name changed]

You don’t know Sandra T, Bambina’s unpleasant summer preschool teacher. But just know this: if someone tells you that you are dressing like her, you need to open your closet and throw in a match. Now. It was so bad that she asked, while in kiddie laughter hysterics, if she could have the pants and shirt to play Sandra T dress-up. Now, ordinarily I don’t allow my preschooler to offer her opinions on what I wear, but Bambina has steered me right in the past on matters sartorial. One evening, I was wearing the BBDD’s famous flannel shirt (now ripped and sad-looking) from college to bed and she said, “Mama, please don’t wear that; it not a good style for you.” I was momentarily caught off-guard and realized that I looked ridiculous, like a Kurt Cobain reject at the age of 36. She also insisted that I wear the qipao yesterday to dim sum. I felt a little weird at first being all gussied up, but she LOVED it, loved the attention we got from the Chinese ladies, and loved telling people that she picked it for me. In the end, I realized that we looked damn good together. So I think my 4 year-old knows from fashion. And on second look, the Sandra T look was indeed rather unfortunate, if functional. So I cut her some slack on the unsolicited Tim Gunn action for one day.

So, with our Dana Farber marathon walk coming up next week, we’re now off to buy me a sports bra, a non-Sandra workout shirt and pants, and some decent sneakers so I don’t channel her mean and dumpy teacher for five miles. She has also inspired me to re-read my Tim Gunn book about clothes not being designed for the purpose of humiliating you every time you look at them. So I’m pulling out all the things that don’t fit me anymore (the transplant and the prednisone have “shifted” my weight floorward, alas) and giving them to the good people at the Vietnam Veterans of America. It’s time to purge the closet of anything stem cell-related (except for my famous turquoise hoodie; that is staying with me forever because it reminds me of coming home to Bambina after not seeing her for 3 weeks), of anything pre-2005, of anything that “might fit” someday when I’m off the meds. Screw that. When I’m off the meds (whenever the hell that might be), I’ll buy some new clothes then. In the meantime those clothes just serve to taunt rather than inspire me. So out they go. And with them, I hope, any shadow of Sandra T!