thedailywhat: Follow Up of the Day: In an update...

Follow Up of the Day: In an update posted to his Tumblr blog, Photojojo and Jelly founder and all-around good guy Amit Gupta relays the amazing news that he has found a 10/10 matched donor and will be heading to Boston tomorrow to start the transplant process.

When last we left Amit, he had just been diagnosed with Acute Leukemia. His doctor told him he needed to find a bone marrow donor right away — no simple task for a person of South Asian descent.

Thankfully, the Internet stepped up and offered to help.

100 donor drives and countless of reblogs, tweets, and Facebook posts later, and Amit has found his match. “You all literally helped save my life,” Amit says in his post, adding “(And the lives of many others.)”

As for what happens next, he elaborates:

Tomorrow, I’ll be admitted to Dana Farber in Boston for 4-5 weeks.

First I’ll get a second Hickman line to allow direct access to my heart (for meds and for nutrients if I’m not able to eat). Over the next week, the docs blast my body with a stiff chemo cocktail to try anderadicate all traces of cancer cells. In the process, the immune system I was born with, and my body’s ability to make blood, are destroyed.

Next Friday, I get my donor’s stem cells by IV. I start onimmunosuppressants to prevent my body from rejecting them (I’ll be on them for 12-18 months). For these weeks I’ve no immune system, so I’m severely vulnerable to viruses and bacteria. My hospital room and hallway become my world.

Meanwhile, the stem cells make their way to my bone marrow and, with some luck, start producing platelets, red blood cells, and white blood cells. At this point, my blood type changes to the blood type of my donor. And my blood will now have my donor’s DNA, not my own.

This is science fiction stuff. I can hardly believe it’s even possible, and there’s lots of chances for things to go wrong. It’s frightening.

Getting back to “normal” takes time, and there are plenty of obstacles along the way. But Amit’s odds are pretty good given his age, and he knows his family and friends are there to support him every step of the way.

“A few months ago I didn’t have many options,” he says. “Today I have a plan. I am alive. I start tomorrow. Wish me luck!”

Good luck, Amit!

[superamit.]