Everything is connected.

I wrote last week about how my experiences with nursing, music, and giving have come to define who I am. The nursing job I am about to begin seems to fit perfectly into the journey I’ve been travelling. The mixed unit will fulfill my love of pediatrics and my passion for oncology nursing that was sparked by my experience with bone marrow donation.

Nursing, music, and donation converged for me on Friday. I spent my morning at the hospital of my soon-to-be employment, filling out paperwork and having a pre-employment health assessment with employee health. I had labs drawn for immunization titers, and got a pretty nasty bruise from the stick. Despite donating blood and platelets several times since last summer, my arm hadn’t looked that beat up since the stem cell donation. The visual reminder made me think of my recipient, and I was actually wondering to myself about how he was doing when a friend texted me a question about the marrow registry.

I was even more surprised when later that afternoon, I got a phone call from the bone marrow registry. It turns out that my marrow has still not become dominant over my recipient’s, and his doctors have requested a T-cell donation. I haven’t been able to find much research on T-cell transfusions for stem cell transplant patients, but from what I have gathered so far it is intended to give my marrow a boost, allowing it to fully engraft and replace his cells. I’ll be getting more information the next time I speak to my advocate.

"everything's a piece of everyone"

And to complete the convergence of my passions, just a few hours after that phone call I was watching Jack’s Mannequin perform in concert. Much of Andrew Mcmahon’s music is influenced by his own battle with cancer, culminating in him receiving a stem cell transplant from his sister. There could not have been a more fitting moment than hearing him sing about “a light in the dark as I search for the resolution” and more, as I said a silent prayer for my recipient!

I am still blown away by how everything seemed to have fallen into place lately for me. If I had gotten the Florida job, doing this donation would be very complicated and maybe not even possible. If I didn’t have Andrew McMahon’s story in mind back when I saw the bone marrow registry’s booth, I may not have thought to have signed up. If I hadn’t done the bone marrow donation, I might still be as hesitant as I had been about working with patients with cancer, and I wouldn’t have known what to say when presented with it during my job interview. Everything is connected.

Tags: bone marrow donation, donation, giving, jack's mannequin, life, music, nursing