Former Emporian Lisa Spillman Mesa on Thursday afternoon received the stem cells she needs to fight the acute myelogenous leukemia doctors diagnosed last August.
Mesa, who now lives in Broken Arrow, Okla., received the transplant a few days later than initially planned because of a delay in getting the cells to her at Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas. Before the transplant, she completed a round of chemotherapy and total body radiation.
“She did have some severe side effects about six hours after the transplant — fever, chills, headache, low blood pressure, high heart rate and chest pains,” Mesa’s aunt, Cindy Baysinger, said on Sunday. “It was kind of scary, but the staff of Baylor is amazing. They took incredible care of her and assured us that these effects can and do happen.”
The fever has gone, and Mesa was experiencing some nausea, along with extreme fatigue, Baysinger said.
Mesa’s diagnosis came seven to eight weeks after she gave birth to her second child, Logan; she and her husband, Manny, also have another young son, Aiden.
Mesa’s stem cells came through an international bone-marrow donor registry, after no compatible donors were found within the United States. Approximately 7 million donors are included on the list, and four from other countries were identified as potential donors for Mesa. Only one of them, however, was available to donate to Mesa.
The difficulties encountered in locating a donor for her has spurred her former boss, Greg Bachman, to schedule a drive in honor of Mesa to register new donors with the National Marrow Donor Program. The organization usually charges $52 to register donors, because of the laboratory testing involved. However, it will give a $27 discount on registration for the local drive, dropping the cost to $25 per person.
Bachman initially had said he would pay the fee for any of his employees at Emporia Fitness and Emporia Physical Therapy, where Mesa formerly worked as a physical therapist.
Now, Bachman has expanded his offer to include any individual who becomes a member at Emporia Fitness, 2812 W. 12th Ave.
“They need join only for one month and we will pay the $25 fee for processing their tissue,” Bachman said.
The drive will be from 3:30 to 7:30 p.m. on March 2 at Emporia Fitness.
Bachman’s effort is much-appreciated by Mesa’s family, which knows the value of having a donor available in a life-threatening crisis.
“Being here with Lisa and meeting other families ... makes us know how very blessed we have been that a donor was found for Lisa, and that what Greg Bachman is doing is so important,” Baysinger said.
“Right now, there is a 22-year-old male that is dying since no donor was found for him. Our hearts break for his family.”
Another man who was diagnosed 2 1/2 years ago had no donor available, and chose an “autologous cell transplant,” which used the man’s own cells, harvested while he was in a remission, processed, and returned to his body.
“He and his family knew that the chances of recurrence were high with this type (of transplant),” Baysinger said. “It was the only chance he had.”
The man’s leukemia returned in October and still they could find no donor. During the first week of December, however, the family received a phone call that two donors had been found during a donor drive similar to the one that will be held here.
“He had his transplant two weeks ago,” Baysinger said.
Although bone marrow often is needed from people on the registry, donors may be asked to give their blood instead — a simpler and less uncomfortable procedure. The blood is removed from the donor, the stem cells separated out and the remaining blood then is put back into the donor. The latter is the process Mesa underwent.
A representative of the NMDP will be at Emporia Fitness to assist registrants, who will fill out paperwork and have four swab samples taken from their mouths.
Bachman said that no discomfort or pain is involved in the sampling.
Requirements are minimal for people who want to become donors:
• Must be in general good health
• Between the ages of 18 through 60
• Willing to donate to any patient in need
According to information from NMDP, there is no medical cost involved when donors give their marrow or stem cells. Donors also are reimbursed for travel expenses.
Side-effects are short-lived and may include headaches, joint or muscle aches or fatigue that goes away one or two days after donating.
Although many doctors now prefer stem cell donation, donors who give bone marrow receive general or regional anesthesia and do not feel needles or pain during the donation. For about one to seven days, donors may feel some soreness in their lower backs, and may also feel tired or have difficulty walking. No pieces of bone are taken during donation; only the liquid marrow is needed.
“Though no medical procedure is without risk, there are rarely any long-term effects,” a NMDP fact sheet stated. The organization “pre-screens all donors carefully, ensuring they are healthy and the procedure is safe for them. ...
“Because only a small fraction of the body’s life-giving cells are donated, the donor’s immune system stays strong and the cells replace themselves within four to six weeks.”
People who want to send e-mail messages to Mesa may do so at lisa_mesa@hotmail.com.
Mesa is the daughter of Judy Spillman Welch of Emporia and the late Glen Spillman, and the granddaughter of Beulah Spillman and Opal Dacus.