TeamMatthew Blogs

I love how she wears matching camo shorts just to make me happy

Since we had to post-pone our May 23, 2009 wedding, we decided to have a family get together anyways that day, hence our “I Do…” and “I Do Too!” T-shirts.

Third time’s the charm??!! Matt’s finally home from his successful bone marrow transplant, and we’re ready to finally say our I do’s! After 2 unsuccessful tries at this wedding planning stuff, this time we’re ready to go — and hopefully it’ll be FREEEE!! We’re entering a $100,000 wedding give-away on Crate and Barrel’s website — please please please please vote for us!! Just follow a few easy steps:

1. click on the link below
2. make sure you see our happy smiling faces :), click on VOTE
3. register on the site with your email address
4. they will email you with a confirmation, so check your email,
5. click on the link in your email and hit VOTE again!
6. Log Out on Crate & Barrel if someone else is going to vote on the same computer

Easy peazy! Takes only a minute, we promise!! Don’t forget to confirm your email address or your vote won’t count!

The contest started on 2/1 so we’re a little behind, so please please please vote, and vote sooooon!! Please please please PASS THIS message to your family, friends, friends of friends, co-workers, anyone — we need all the help we can get!

LINK: http://www.ultimateweddingcontest.com/entries/33977

Thank you, thank you, thank you!! We’re sooooo excited to finally get married, but we’d be uber excited to do it for FREEE!!

Chloe and Matthew

My Health Update: 165 days post transplant, painful headaches from spinal tap since 3/15/10

Viet Lam, Dr. Lam Do, James Nguyen, & Thierry Lu

This past Sunday, James Nguyen and Thierry Lu, from Team Matthew attended a dinner in Milpitas, CA to meet with Vietnamese leaders from the community and other cancer fighter/survivors.  They were able to meet Dr. Lam Do, who is very active with AADP (Asian American Donor Program). Dr Do’s son underwent a successful bone marrow transplant 8 years ago and is doing well. They also met with Viet Lam, who is a battling cancer herself. She is 37 years old and is a physician. Viet was diagnosed with advanced aggressive Large B-cell Lymphoma in May 2007. To read more about Viet Lam and her battle, please click HERE and HERE. If you have not registered to become a bone marrow donor please do so as there are MANY other people who are still searching for a match to survive.

My buddies & DEDICATED Team Matthew volunteers James and Thierry

151 days post transplant and I am doing alright. Since my last entry many things have occurred. I got my PICC line pulled out after many many months of reliable usage. I hit a milestone of “100″ days post transplant and since things were ging well i was able to go outside in public without wearing my face mask as well as go back to a normal diet…. that meant no more low bacterial diet and i could finally have that salad i have been craving for so long. I also had a few other items to eat that i have been craving as you can see from the pictures (not all in one day).

My niece and nephew, Madeline and Connor

I also traveled to San Jose, Ca to visit my sisters, cousins, nieces, nephews, and friends. I was also able to attend my friends wedding Diana and Truyen. I’ve known Diana since the 3rd grade, that’s over 20 years, wow. Also Diana and Truyen were a part of Team Matthew and helped out at many drives. The morning after their wedding they even showed up at a drive we were helping out at to bring a friend that was not a bone marrow donor yet…. Just amazing.

Monday I was back at City of Hope hospital having a spinal tap (or Lumbar puncture, LP) procedure done. This is part of a series of LP my dr decided to do since I have a high number of white blood cells in my spinal fluid. Dr says they are all normal cells bu does not know why I have an elevated amount. So the plan is to to test my spinal fluid every few weeks and give me a small does of methotrexate, a chemotherapy agent, just as an additional preventative treatment. So far each time I’ve had this procedure done the number of white blood cells have gotten lower and lower closer to normal. Today the procedure was little tougher than usual. It took the doctor almost 45 minutes to complete the procedure (normally 10 mins) because he was having a hard time getting the needle in due to the scar tissue my body produced from all the previous times. So he had to go in three different spots and boy was it painful. I was so exhausted afterwards from the stress and pain I fell asleep for 2 hours.

Getting transfusion of platelets to prevent excess bleeding before spinal tap

Everyday I wake up it is a blessing to still be breathig and being able to do normal everyday things such as walking outside and breathing the fresh air, eating fresh fruits/vegetables without worrying about getting sick, being around other people without warring a mask, etc. I know I am very fortunate to be in the condition I am now, and I am thankful for both my parents and my fiancé, Chloe, for being by my side everyday to take care of me for the past 2.5 years. Now I hope I will be well enough to return to school, have a professional career, and take care of them. Hopefully I will have good news about school to share with everyone in the near future. Thank you again everyone for your support and “Chuc mung nam moi”, “happy new years” (lunar new years). A couple of months ago I would have never imagined that I would be able to celebrate this withmy friends and family. Hopefully this will be a better year for all of us.

My Picc line pulled out next to a credit card

Ashley, Nancy D. (Birthday Girl), and Nancy #2

A few friends decided to pump up their blood pressure by going out to Lake Elsinore, CA, and jump out of a moving airplane for kicks. They were actually out there celebrating Nancy D.’s Birthday.  Nancy has been a very dedicated and “hardcore” Team Matthew volunteer, attending almost every drive we had in Southern California. When she’s committed to something, it’s hard to pull her away - so it was only fitting that when she committed to jumping out of a plane, that’s exactly what she did! Two of Nancy’s friends, Ashley and Nancy, joined the birthday girl on this crazy feat. I would have loved to join them — maybe next year???

Happy belated birthday and congrats to Nancy on accomplishing one of the things on her bucket list. And, way to represent TM!!

Is she giving her last kiss good-bye? j/k she landed safely on the ground.

Yeah I feel good!!

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Click on image to download pdf flyer

Our friends at Asians for Miracle Marrow Matches (A3M) are having a Bone Marrow Drive and a Fundraiser in partnership with Turtle Beach Store in Gardena, CA. The store features Island apparel and accessories, which make great holiday gifts. This weekend there will be a Drive ONLY and next weekend there will be a Drive + Fundraiser. Come on out and show your support.

Help us spread the word to your friends and family! 10% of purchases with the attached flyer will be donated to A3M.

Drive ONLY - Sat & Sun Dec 5-6, 11am-4pm
Turtle Beach Store 1693
W. Artesia Blvd.
Gardena, CA 90248

Drive + Fundraiser - Sat & Sun Dec 12-13, 11am-4pm
Turtle Beach Store 1693
W. Artesia Blvd.
Gardena, CA 90248

Store Manager: Dana Kanakaole, (310)817-5727

For further details or if you would like to volunteer, please contact the following

Sat 12/5, Drive only, 11am-4pm, Recruiter Jackie (jandrade@ltsc.org)
Sat 12/6, Drive only, 11am-4pm, Recruiter Glen (gsangustin@ltsc.org)
Sat 12/12, Drive + Fundraiser, 11am-4pm, Recruiter Ted (tnguyen@ltsc.org)
Sat 12/13, Drive + Fundraiser, 11am-4pm, Recruiter Niranjan (nbhatt@ltsc.org)
Or Call A3M’s office at (888) 236-4673

Recently I found out about a fellow UCLA student who was diagnosed with Leukemia. I wanted to share her story to everyone to show that MANY people are effected by cancer so there is a need to have MANY people registered at bone marrow donors. Janet Lian, 22 years old, was diagnosed earlier this year with ALL, Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (bi-phenotypic). She is of Chinese descent and desperately needs your help. Janet was diagnosed and treated at UCLA medical center but is now back home in the Bay area. She is currently getting chemotherapy treatments at UC San Francisco. Chinese and Asians Please Register to Help Janet Liang and many others.

Please register to help Janet and others like her. We can never have too many donors in the National Registry. You can go to www.BeTheMatch.org , www.AsianMarrow.org , or www.AADP.org to find live drives near you.

Janet Liang, 22 years old, needs YOUR help. Please help Janet and many others like her.

To learn more about Janet please visit her website to find up to date information regarding her progress at www.helpingjanet.com

Janet and I were also featured in UCLA Daily Bruin Newspaper and UCLA Pacific Ties Magazine urging UCLA students to register to become a marrow donor.

A few words from Janet:

“There’s an overwhelming amount of guilt I feel and frustration, because all I can do is keep asking and begging. That’s all I’m good for these days with no guaranteed promise of the ability to return your favors. I also understand that many of you have fruitful, promising lives/futures and are extremely busy. All I can really tell you is that I have about 3-4 months time to come up with some kind of bone marrow donor match. That is nearly impossible. The pressure is on, as my doctors and bone marrow transplant coordinator continuously remind me of the time-sensitive nature of treating this disease. If not, they’ll continue to drag it on and on, keeping me alive with one chemo round after another until I become resistant to it and there’s no other alternative except an umbilical cord transplant, which will buy more time and is currently in the research/experimental stages.”