Be The Match!

Here are a few photos I took from my little perch on a hill at the 'ole workplace. This is how PDX looks on a sunshiny day:

That's Mt. Hood back there:

And that's the tram:

And here's what I do:

Hip, happenin' and generous pregnant ladies that want to donate their baby's umbilical cord blood enroll in our program (I enroll them). Next they have their baby and the cord blood is collected (doctors and nurses do that part). Then it's shipped up to Seattle to the Puget Sound Blood Center to be processed and stored (I do that, the shipping part).

And here's why I'm telling you:

If you're a pregnant reader I urge you to donate the cord blood. If cord blood donation is out (you have an XY chromosomal pair, you're over-the-hill, under-the-hill or otherwise not inclined to impregnate) than I urge you to join the Be The Match registry.

I'm going to help out at a Bone Marrow Drive on Saturday for a little guy that desperately needs to find a match so he can get a transplant to cure his leukemia. And on a super bummer note, there are a lot of kids that need to find matches. Adults too.

To help, all you have to do is have a Q-tip swab in the cheek and you're done. Your tissues will be typed and if you're a match for someone they (The National Marrow Donor Program) will get in touch with you. It's kind of a lot to think about, but think about it.

This is a sweet (short) story written by a 12-year-old patient of Dr. N, our medical director. She was treated with the stem cells from a cord blood donor (all the way from Spain!).

And, one last story for you NASCAR-lovers (ahem, Dad:).