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Teen finds marrow match
STACY LANGLEY, The Huron Daily Tribune
01/27/2006 - He’s even got six months under his belt of tackling classes to become a paramedic through Scheurer Hospital. But the newest addition to his life has been learning all about being a dad to his 4-month-old daughter, Alexis.
“It feels really good to be a dad,” Gilbert said as he held his daughter on his lap and stared at her from behind a medical face mask.
Just two weeks ago Gilbert’s life as he knew it came to a screeching halt. What seemed to be a minor rash all over his body was instead a warning sign of a very rare disease called severe aplastic anemia. It affects less than 1,000 people each year in the United States.
Gilbert said he simply thought he had an allergic reaction to something and went to Scheurer Hospital about 9:30 p.m. on Jan. 15, thinking he’d get a prescription and head back home.
“I didn’t have time to go to the doctor during the day when I first noticed it (the rash) all over my skin. When I got a chance, I went to the ER that Sunday night. The spots, I know now, they call it patika,” he explained. “They told me right then what I had.”
Gilbert said while at the hospital the doctor ran blood work telling him that he had severe aplastic anemia.
Aplastic anemia is not a single disease, but a group of closely related disorders characterized by the failure of the bone marrow to produce all three types of blood cells: red blood cells, white blood cells and platelets.
To confirm a diagnosis of aplastic anemia, a physician examines a blood sample and determines the number of each type of blood cell circulating in the blood. Aplastic anemia is strongly suspected when two or three of the cell counts are extremely low. A definitive diagnosis is made if a marrow sample (a biopsy) shows a great reduction in the number of cells in the marrow itself.
“About 20 minutes later the doctor started me on antibiotics and sent me right away by ambulance to Covenant (Healthsystems Harrison campus) in Saginaw,” Gilbert said. “(At Covenant) they did a bone marrow biopsy, took a needle stuck it into my hip, sucked the fluid away from the bone and took a core out of the bone. That hurt a lot. I spent two days in the Saginaw hospital before going to the University of Michigan CS Mott Children's Hospital in Ann Arbor where they did another bone marrow biopsy — that time it didn’t hurt at all. They were good to me in Ann Arbor, and I came home the following Sunday night.”
On Monday night at home in Pigeon Gilbert was back at Scheurer Hospital, this time with an ear and throat infection.
“They took blood and gave me an antibiotic for the infection,” he said. On Tuesday, Gilbert said the hospital told him they found infection in his blood stream. Gilbert’s parents, Jim and Kris Gilbert, were packing up suitcases as they prepared to take their son immediately back to Ann Arbor where they will work to get rid of the infection.
“I might get to come back home in a day or so, and I might not get to come home until after my (bone marrow) transplant,” he said. “I’ll have chemo (chemotherapy) first, a week before the transplant.” Gilbert’s younger brother, Zach, and older sister, Melissa, both have been tested to see if they are a match.
Kris Gilbert said a donor has to be a 100 percent match to Dave. “We were told we should know by the end of this week if one, both or none of them (his siblings) are a match,” Kris Gilbert said Tuesday night as they were leaving to take Dave to Ann Arbor.
On Wednesday Gilbert and his parents were given the news they had been hoping for — his older sister Melissa is a 100 percent match. The University of Michigan Health Systems offers what’s called CarePages for their patients who wish to participate. Dave Gilbert, known as “firecat”, wrote to his friends and family: “Hey everyone my sister matches my bone marrow 100 percent. It will be at least two weeks before we start the process.”
News spread across Gilbert’s hometown community Wednesday night and Thursday.
A bone marrow transplant cannot take place unless a matched donor can be located. About one-third of patients can find a compatible family member, typically a sibling. After a donor is located and a transplant is arranged, the patient will receive high doses of chemotherapy and/or radiation therapy to wipe out his or her deficient marrow. The donated cells are then infused into the patient, where they multiply and replace the patient's deficient marrow.
Patients without a matching related donor can search for an unrelated donor among the more than 5 million volunteers registered with the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP).
Dave Gilbert said he has no idea how he got aplastic anemia. “I’m told only 40 percent of the time do they ever find out how someone got it,” he said.
The exact cause of aplastic anemia is unknown, although it has been linked to exposure to chemicals and radiation. It is also believed that some cases of aplastic anemia are inherited and that some cases are due to a viral infection.
Dave said Tuesday night from his home in Pigeon that he’s nervous about the outcome.
“Everything happened so fast I really haven’t had a chance to get used to it all. The hardest thing was when the doctor told me I couldn’t go back to school. When my friends were taken away that bothered me. I never thought not being able to go to school would bother me, but it does.” To send well wishes to Dave Gilbert, go to www.carepages.com. Code name “firecat”.
Stacy Langley • (989) 269-6461 • slangley@hearstnp.com
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