CLARA'S BONE MARROW TRANSPLANT

My name is Clara Jackson and I’m a senior in high school. I was diagnosed with MDS( Myelodysplastic syndrome), Aplastic Anemia and later on found leukemia. Which means my bone marrow was dying and I was in need of a bone marrow transplant. I was going to Kaiser Roseville every couple weeks for a few days because I was loosing lots of blood and my body wasn’t producing enough platelets. So I would have to get multiple transfusions. I would go up there for a few days to “charge up” and then come back home. I was sent to UCSF for my rare mutation (GATA2). It took about 6 months to find a donor that matched. I was admitted to UCSF on August 24 2017 . I was suppose to be admitted the day after but they found leukemia blasts in my Marrow. I was sent to the Children’s Blood and Marrow Transplant Unit. It was a intensive isolation. I was suppose to start chemotherapy on August 29 2017, to wipe out my whole immune system. But due to it being so low they found a really bad infection which was infecting my liver. They had to delay my transplant. They gave me different antibiotics to try and cover the infection. The infection went to my blood stream. My liver was so close to failing that they were going to decide not to do the transplant. We gave it a month to let the antibiotics work. My bilirubin was still really high that my eyes turned yellow. There was just things happening one after another. We were running out of time and needed to do the transplant now. I had one week of chemotherapy which was spread out within 15 days. They made a different regimen for me then was originally planned to try and protect the liver as much as they can. It was called a reduced intensity chemo. There were many studies I participated in. Even though may not benefit be but might help someone else in the future. I could not leave my room unless I was sent for a urgent MRI OR CT. When your counts are zero you cannot go anywhere because you don’t want to be exposed and get sick because you don’t have any cells to fight off that infection. I could not leave my room for almost 2 months. My best friend Georgia and my brother Keith would come see my parents and I on weekends. Those were the days I looked forward to because I wasn’t allowed to see anyone. September 29, 2017. My new birthday. Throughout my whole experience being in the hospital. My parents were with me every single day. All my hard days and my kinda good days. My parents stopped their whole world to take care of me. My twin brother stepped up to the plate. He made sure he bought lots of cool gifts and things for me to play with. My Best friend made sure to text me everyday to remind me that everything will be okay and telling me I’m not missing out anything at school. I never would of thought I would spend most of my senior year even being severely sick living in San Francisco. But there was a school in the hospital and I did still continue and do schooling whenever I could. But I’ve learned that god doesn’t give you something you cannot overcome it. Im on the road to recovery now. Im blessed that I am here and getting better. What I went through Is impossible for someone to understand unless you been through it. Ive met so many great people, that mean so much to me. My Doctors and Nurses are one of the coolest people I ever met in my entire life. If it wasn’t for my amazing BMT team at UCSF I wouldn’t be here today. My new immune system is still growing. I am taking it day by day praying everything goes as planned. While greater things are yet to come. UCSF found 2 Focal nodular hyperplasia which is a benign tumor in my liver. One grew a bit but they cannot do anything right now because I am still in recovery. 3 months from now we will do another a MRI to see if they will do a biopsy or remove it. Time will tell. Please pray for me and my family. I hope everything goes well. I am raising money to help my family and I with all the medical expenses. Thank you all for the help and prayers. Everything will be greatly appreciated.