I’m free (sort of)! It feels good to be home. Overall my stay at Hotel Kaiser was fine. My fever went away by Friday evening and I really think that if my oncologist was on-call he would have discharged me over the weekend. In any case, I got discharged on Monday. I have daily blood draws. Yesterday my platelets were at 7 so I got a transfusion. For the first time in over a year I had an allergic reaction. In the past I basically break out into hives and become an itchy ball of fire. However, yesterday my left eye became irritated. It got red and puffed up. My nostrils immediately plugged up. I also had an itchy throat, tightness in my chest and a dry cough. I felt sorry for the lady sitting across from me. She just started chemo and already looked scared. I tried to comfort her, but then I had the allergic reaction which was not a pretty sight. I kept telling her that I was fine, but I don’t think I was very convincing. haha
Counts are all low, but that means the chemo is working. All in all, I’m a happy camper. No blues for this gal today.
9 responses so far ↓
1 Pim // Jun 17, 2009 at 10:21 am
Love your optimism and sense of humor!!! You’re definitely one of the strongest Thai chicas I know (in more ways than one)
Wishing you all the best from the East Coast!!
Love,
Pim & Gary
2 D :) // Jun 17, 2009 at 12:05 pm
I check this site daily to see how you are doing and I am happy to hear that your spirits are high! Michelle please know that there are sooo many people who are rooting for you and want you to get better…esp here in Hawaii! GO MICHELLE!!!!!!
3 Daniel Huynh, Los Angeles // Jun 18, 2009 at 5:14 pm
Michelle, I just want to say you’re an inspiration to us all. Thanks for writing. We’re all cheering you on.
4 Tammy // Jun 19, 2009 at 11:32 pm
Keep rockin’, Michelle. <3 you!
5 Wenda "Jello" Lee // Jun 20, 2009 at 2:19 am
Michelle!! I wanted to update you on my friend who’s found to be a match for someone. Hope this brings you more warm fuzzies as you are going through your next rounds of chemo. Here’s what she wrote on her facebook:
Bone Marrow Donation – Part 1 (by: Crystal Lee)
6/19/09; 2:12pm
A little inspiration: You know, ever since I registered in response to Michelle Maykin’s case, I found out how little so many people knew about the process of becoming a Bone Marrow Donor, myself included. So, I read about it and found out that 70% of the time, people just go through the stem cell transfer. I think the most common reaction I got was …”oooh…isn’t that going to hurt?” Of course I told them, not exactly. So I found myself repeatedly telling people…most of the time the actual marrow extraction procedure is not the one people go through nowadays. I explained to them that even if I was to go through the extraction procedure, I would be sedated. So, that’s how I got to the point where I’m writing this note and probably future notes to follow. If any of you all want to know what it’s like to go through the donor process, well, I’m going to write it all out. It’ll be my donor blog.
Point in Process: So anywho, the point that I’m at now (they already found that I am THE match), I’ve given them all of the information they want, so now I am just waiting for my first appointment with UCSF. They’re going to run all sorts of tests, scans, and more tests on me.
Humor Moment: I have been communicating with the Donor Society. I find it funny that they keep telling me to not get pregnant no matter how much I tell them, I’m not trying.
Shout Out: Thanks to Jello for spreading the word about registering for Michelle Maykin. If it wasn’t for her, I never would have known about registering and how easy it was.
6 Veeral // Jun 21, 2009 at 10:58 pm
Maykin,
So glad you are home and got to enjoy Father’s Day with family. Did Marty get Papa Van a present?
Have a good week – we love you both.
- Veeral and Ami
7 Stacie Tamaki // Jun 21, 2009 at 11:41 pm
Oh my gosh Michelle! That poor woman and poor you. You described your allergic reaction so well I can just picture her not feeling reassured despite your good intentions. LOL
I’m also glad you are able to find humor whenever possible and glad that your chemo side effects weren’t too bad. I hope you are feeling well right now and are still finding plenty of things to laugh at.
*Hugs*
8 Wenda "Jello" Lee // Jun 22, 2009 at 10:15 pm
Hi Michelle!
Thanks for your email! It was a GREAT surprise! Here’s part 2 of Crystal’s donor journey and the other Crystal she referenced is your cousin:
Bone Marrow Donor’s Blog – Part 2, Sat@ 2:33pm
Links:
1) To register to become a Bone Marrow Donor http://www.aadp.org/pages/register.php
2) To become inspired, this is the link to Michelle Maykin’s Blog. She has been my inspiration through this whole process. If it wasn’t for her, I would not have had this opportunity. http://projectmichelle.com/blog/
How it all started: One day I got an e-mail from Jello who got an email from Crystal (yes, another Crystal and yes, she’s awesome too). Crystal’s cousin is Michelle Maykin and they were rallying up the troops to try to find donors. You see, Michelle was going through her second attempt at trying to beat this cancer of the blood. (She is currently working through round 3.) What hit home with me was that she could have been one of my friends…local Bay Area gal, graduated from Berkeley, mid-to-late 20s…heck, this girl could have been me (replace Berkeley with USF and that’d be me). On top of that, I found out that lots of Asians don’t register. A lot of it has to do with culture. We just don’t talk about that stuff until we’re straight up in the hospital and don’t have a choice.
So I decided not to sit around and just let things pass me by. A lot of you know, if I want something, I just go out and get it (hence the stress I create in my friends trying to find me a christmas/birthday gift). Of course I was worried about what my parents would say, but I thought to myself, I’m just swabbing my cheek…no big deal. So I went to the registration link (above) ordered my at-home free swabbing kit and swabbed these giant Q-Tips. You don’t want to try to stuff these suckers in your ear, that’s for sure. I sent off my sample, received my donor card in the mail and waited.
About a year later (which would be a couple of months ago), I got a call from the Asian American Donor Program saying that I had come up as a potential match for a leukemia patient. What happened was no one in his family came up as a match for him, so then he looked into the third party registry and found me. They conducted a whole phone interview with me to go over my medical history. I even managed to accidently lock myself in the emergency stairway in my office building trying to find a private spot =P (note to self: just because the knob turns, doesn’t mean the door will open.)
A couple weeks after that, I get a call from the rep saying that I am a part of the group that moves on to stage 3 which is submitting blood samples. I give my blood samples at a place a few blocks away from my apartment. Then she tells me that only 1 in 12 move on to become the actual donor.
A month later (which is now a couple of weeks ago) I find out I AM the ONE of the 1 in 12.
Shout Out: Special shout out to my Gisu who took me to get my bloodwork done and for saying to me the other day that he thinks that what I’m doing is good thing. I love you babe!
9 Young // Jun 24, 2009 at 9:46 pm
hey michelle, keep working it =). see you fri??
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