Future Heros? Hopefully we Find a Match

On Monday afternoon, the kids and I headed down to the lab on the corner and all 5 kids agreed to get their blood drawn to see if they would be a potential match for Andrew's bone marrow transplant. It will take at least 3 weeks for them to process the 7 vials they each contributed and get the results. 

The 4 oldest kids climbed onto the draw chair and sat calmly for he poke.  Mark, who's 4.5 years, was nervous with anticipation. When they called him over I went with him, knowing it would be helpful to have an extra set of hands. He cried before they poked him, but once the needle was in his arm, and they told him the hurting part was done, he settled right down.  (Which honestly surprised me.) Lexie and Mary, the phlebotomists there, deserve all the credit for that.  They knew all the tricks and techniques to distract kids from the needle. I wonder if he was a little dehydrated because it took almost double the time to fill his 7 tubes than the other kids.  Or he might just have smaller veins.  Eventually, he filled them all and I deduced they all earned ice cream, even though dinnertime was less than an hour away. 

So, we went to Macey's deli and got giant soft serve cones. (Best kept secret: Macey's has the best bang for your buck when it comes to soft serve ice cream.) They also have dole whip for the more "refined" palate. 

I am so proud of these kids!  

As a side note, many have asked me how they can get on the Bone Marrow registry.  There are many companies.  Here is one I found. https://my.bethematch.org Its a quick process: simple health questionnaire, then they send you a saliva sample kit to fill and return.  My sister said it was easy. You do have to be age 18, and its a national (maybe even international) registry so you could be matched to a stranger from anywhere.