Climb Over the Balcony

To find out what that title means, you're going to have to, er, "climb over the balcony" and go to Open Mouth, Insert Fork. You'll also get to read about the batch of Julienne's Graham Cracker Chewy bars that I baked for my doctor and staff at the City of Hope. They were a big hit.

While I was at yesterday's appointment, I found out an interesting tidbit from my doctor, who is not only the chair of the hematology department at CoH but also literally wrote the book on bone marrow transplantation.

I asked him what determines if the donor gives bone marrow (from the hip, 20% of cases) or stem cells (from peripheral blood, 80% of cases). The answer was simple. Children require bone marrow, not stem cells for a successful transplant. Interesting, huh.

Many potential donors confess that they're willing to donate stem cells through their blood, but aren't sure if they could undergo the minor surgical procedure of removing bone marrow through the hip. I hope the fact that the life-saving bone marrow would go to a child would make a difference in that person's decision.