Some Gave All!

Over the last week, Nonnie's doctors have continued in their quest to get her platelets under control. She received platelets again on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. The first 2 days were unsuccessful...... in fact, I learned a new word that explains why this is happening. This occurs most often in people who have had many blood and platelet transfusions, and is known as becoming "refractory" to the platelets.

In the immune deficient patient (Nonnie), the platelets can become less effective when her system recognizes the donated platelets as different than her own. The body then produces antibodies to attack and destroy the platelets quickly. If this type of reaction occurs, a blood test can be taken to check for antibodies, and the platelets you are given can be checked to make sure that they are similar to the recipients. This is known as "cross-matching", where certain proteins on the cell surface are looked at to make sure they are similar.

On Friday, the doctors began their search for the donor who gave her the platelets on Monday of last week. They had hoped that because she responded so well to that donor, they would not have to do the cross-match process. In the donor world, you never know if the donor is still able or willing to give again. Would you believe it if I told you that the donor was not only willing to give again, he/she actually works in the location where the platelets came from!

On September 11, 2009, eight years to the day that 343 firefighters gave their lives so others may live, this person stepped up and gave platelets to Nonnie. Her counts immediately went from 4,000 to 39,000! Now that we have that figured out for the time being.... we need for her fever to stop rearing its ugly head!