Colette Pellerin's battle against Aplastic Anemia

Story

For those of you who do not know me, my name is Lindsay Lincoln and I am Colette’s godmother. In early December 2021, Colette was hospitalized just shy of a week as a result of having pancytopenia – the deficiency of all three cellular components of the blood (red cells, white cells, and platelets). Since then, she has undergone multiple platelet and red blood transfusions and has her third bone marrow biopsy scheduled for January 24th. Doctors have confirmed Colette has developed Aplastic Anemia. Aplastic Anemia is the deficiency of all types of blood cells caused by failure of bone marrow development. Scott and Erica (Colette’s parents) chose to shift her primary care to Boston Children’s Hospital and the doctors there are working diligently to determine the underlying cause of the Aplastic Anemia. Once they confirm if it is genetic or acquired, they can move forward with a treatment plan. The first line of treatment for patients with Aplastic Anemia is a bone marrow transplant from a sibling. If the patient does not have a sibling, the second line of treatment is an immunosuppressive therapy called AGT. Colette has a long road ahead of her, the prognosis is good, but will require many months of treatments and isolation. Scott and Erica are alternating taking leave of absences from work and will both be on leave to be with Colette in Boston for a minimum of three weeks once treatments start. Following treatments, they will be commuting to and from Boston 1-2 times a week for follow ups. Given they are in isolation, making it hard to physically help them, I wanted to start a page to help Scott and Erica with the burden of medical and travel expenses. I will continue to update on Colette’s progress on this page.