Eight years ago our family hosted a party to celebrate Jack’s second transplant birthday. There was a cake and balloons and (like any good party) a table so that people could sign up for the Bone Marrow Registry. 79 people signed up that day. One was a friend of a friend, Michael Steiner. I’ve shared his story before, but it continues — here’s the update:

So I did the marrow (“Drill baby! Drill!”) donation back in September 2015. Then a few months after that I did the white blood cell donation (“Spin baby! Spin!”) for my cousin, … because we’re all cousins. #ScienceIsReal

I knew he was in Europe, but I guessed he was in Germany (biggest country, my dad is ethnically German… so odds were on Deutschland over all others.). But it turns out Hans, is not Hans; he’s Pierre. Yes, he’s in France. I was thinking I would call him Francois, but I can never be sure to spell that with i-o or o-i. Oy!

Anyway, I found out the France part because Be The Match called me again in December 2016 to do another white blood cell donation, but this time a nurse would jack me up with some filgrastim over 5 days before the “harvest”. The filgrastim would make my body over-produce the white blood cells so the machine can spin out a better dose for Pierre.

The procedure was set for February 1st (aka “February Fools’ Day”).

I didn’t have many side-effects from the filgrastim. Only some sleeplessness and a low fever because the body gets confused with all those white blood cells around. “What’s the matter? What’s with all the white blood cells? Are we sick? What the heck?” HA! I got to stay in a hotel in the city the night before the harvest because my appointment with the needles was at 7:30am.

Since white blood cells only last a few days, Pierre got the “booster pack” within 24 hours of the harvest. I thought that was pretty cool.

Unfortunately, I’m very unlikely to be able to help Pierre again, at least with regards to his Leukemia. My handler at Be The Match told me I’m “getting to old for this s**t.” (Roger Murtaugh – Lethal Weapon). But seriously, I can be in great shape, but I’m already 45, and my cells aren’t going to be helpful to Pierre after a certain age. (I imagine the bag of white blood cells arriving in France and them saying “Ça sent un vieil homme.” Don’t you love how “old” in French looks like “vile”?)

I probably won’t get an update on how Pierre is doing, and I don’t need one. I hope he hangs in there for a long time, but I know how it all ends!

A big merci beaucoup to Jesse Cappello Torrey who had that “swab party” those years ago.

Merci to you Michael!!!!

Love, Jess