You have asked what you can do -- there is something

3/30 – 4/6  Tuesday-Tuesday

Teri is feeling good right now.  She is doing her daily exercise of walking for 20 minutes (timed) X 3 and Tai Chi (meditation in movement) and tolerated her second round – high dose Ara-C (30X the induction) consolidation chemotherapy – much better with some mucositis and focal bleeding but without the typhilitis and neutrophilic eccrine hidrandenitis rash of the first round.  Her check up is good – it’s all relative.  Her platelets are still hovering at 30K (normal > 150K) and her white count in response to the GCSF (white cell stimulating factor) rebounded from 200 to 17,000 (normal 5000-10,000) in a matter of days.  Her liver enzymes are rising, possibly a side effect.  At her check up, the plan is set for Teri to get her 5^th bone marrow next week and then start her third round of chemotherapy on 4/22 in the hospital.

Her body is changing with the chemotherapy.  She is becoming wiry like a marathon runner – a ‘lean, mean, fighting machine’ … all the better to ‘kick butt’ Teri’s motto.  She is exfoliating and her skin is recovering.  She still has some hair follicles – one can no longer see the KB (kick butt) and CF (cancer free) that was carved into her buzz cut.  She has had 5 lbs of weight loss, despite a surprisingly maintained appetite.

Although her spirits are high, largely due to her optimism and hope, and the incredible outpouring of support and love – that brings her to tears – there are times of despair.  It happens in the early morning, when she may cry with temporary feelings of lack of control of what is happening, uncertainty as to outcome, fear and despair over the worst case scenario.

Although the origin of Dad’s pneumonia is still unclear – leading candidate is coccidiomycosis (fungal infection endemic in Phoenix) – he has the OK to eat with us again, now that Teri’s counts have recovered.

We have developed an important China connection.  As I was thinking about how to get better access to information about the China Marrow Donor Program on the mainland (1.2 million registrants), I realized I needed to speak to a hematologist or blood center specialist, and that I knew one in Columbus.  I called Ambrose Ng and within a few hours he conferenced me in with Sunny who is from the CMDP in Beijing and is here on an exchange for 6 months.  She will be Teri’s advocate and has already called back to do weekly searches of the 5-15K new registrants each month.  This is a breakthrough.

Teri’s best chance for a cure is for a matched bone marrow.  As we have tried to galvanize the Asian American community through our friends in New York City, Midwest (Ohio, Illinois, Wisconsin) and the Bay Area, we have used the term ‘Six degrees of life’ in parallel to the concept of ‘Six degrees of separation’.  We believe that if each contacts 6 friends or colleagues, we will be able to reach that precious person that matches Teri.

There are a number of Bone Marrow Drives going on – this is where Teri could use your help:

1)  Encourage Chinese-Americans (especially any from the northern Shanghai areas – Zhejiang and Jiangsu Provinces) – to register in one of the upcoming bone marrow drives ‘dedicated to Teri’ listed below.  Many of those working in your or your colleagues’ labs are from China.  They could be the one.

2)  If you know any ‘connector’ people within the Chinese community who know a lot people – our strategy here – please pass the flyer on to them.

3)  If they are unable to attend the drive, or there is no drive locally, they can register and receive a kit from the Asian American Donor Program aadp.org and receive a kit to obtain a buccal swab through the mail.  The AADP has they have a grant until September 2010 to fund the processing.  If they put for ‘Teri Li’ with the kit, the processing may be expedited.

4)  This could obviously be her life line.

Where are the drives:

4/10            Chinatown Planning Council – Flushing, NY

4/13            Medical College of Wisconsin – Milwaukee, WI

4/14-15       Cornell U. – Ithaca, NY

4/17            Ark Diagnostic Inc, Sunnyvale, CA

4/25            Chinese Christian Church of Columbus, OH

4/28            Harriet White Library, UW-Madison, Madison, WI

5/2             Asian Pacific American Heritage Festival, NYC, NY

5/8             Women’s Health Fair – Charles B. Wang Health Center, NYC, NY

5/30            Asian Festival, Franklin Park Conservatory, Columbus, OH

We have had extra help.  Son Ben came during his spring break, cooked, sterilized, and cheered up his Mom.  Sister Terri just arrived.  Friends and neighbors stopped by including Sue, Robert, Paul, Ron, Kari.  Colleagues from work have been providing home-made food three times a week.  Incredible support all around from neighbors, friends and colleagues.