Amit Gupta

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amitguptaneedsyou.com

Amit Gupta is a silicon valley/tech entrepreneur who has been in tech news a lot recently because he needs a bone marrow transplant.  He was diagnosed with AML, and there’s a very active search for a donor.  See his website here: http://amitguptaneedsyou.com/

One of my favorite tech websites/news aggregators, Hacker News, has had news about Amit on-and-off for the last couple weeks.  When I opened the most recent post I saw this comment at the top:

IGNORANCE:

The concept of donating bone marrow terrifies me. I imagine a doctor drilling into my skeleton and using a large needle to suck out the gooey stuff that makes my blood. It sounds absolutely horrific.

If I were ever to consider doing this, someone would have to educate me to the point where my perceived safety is high. Right now I know that this probably won’t kill me, but I don’t understand it enough to trust it. I imagine that I am not the only person in this situation.

I also felt terrible writing this. My fear is absolutely petty compared to the fear of being struck down by leukemia. Perhaps that’s why I felt obligated to share.

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A Match is Found

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The fiance of one of my long time friends got the call a few days ago that he was a match to be a bone marrow donor. He registered for the registry around 2004/2005 in California, didn’t hear anything, went to the Peace Corps in Africa until last year, and was contacted in October 2011 in Washington DC that he was match. Six years later, across the country.

He got a blood test recently to confirm the match.

They’re scheduling his donation for November now. They say he needs to do the hip-based donation versus the PBSC donation, which (I think) usually points to the idea that the recipient is younger, like an infant or toddler. The recipient has acute mylogenous leukemia (AML), the same leukemia that I had. The hip-based donation is the less comfortable of the two, but he’s willing to do it anyway, and even postpone a planned vacation to the UK in order to do so. That speaks to the character and empathy of Dennis.

I’ve asked him if I can be there with him throughout the process, and he’s very graciously accepted my request. I want to learn, I want to document, I want to share his story. I know what it’s like to live with cancer, but I don’t know what it’s like to donate bone marrow. I’ve wondered for a while now what I can do to make the donation process real to others, given my inexperience, and Dennis’ story will be that opportunity.

This will be a life-changing opportunity for him. Seriously life-changing.

Under Construction: Dev, Part I

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Sitting in Starbucks on a Friday evening, with Firefox/Firebug, Photoshop, and WordPress to keep me company.  WordPress has become so customizable/plug and play/non-developer friendly that it’s almost like learning an entirely new language to get it to do what I want.  Shortcodes and WP functions are everywhere.  I’m fortunate to have learned PHP for my internship a few years ago and some experience with creating a WP site already, as it’d be an entirely different monster for someone unfamiliar with web development/PHP/jQuery/CSS.

I’m not where I’d like to be in terms of progress on this site, but I guess it’s better late than never.  Unless I dedicate time intentionally (like Friday night) to this site, it’s continually slipping through my fingers.  After looking at code for 8 hours at work I’m not exactly psyched to come home and look at more code during the week.

Working on a Friday night doesn’t bother me.  Starbucks provides the perfect environment for dev work: ambient noise, random things I can stare at aimlessly when I’m thinking through something, something to sip, caffeine, power outlets and wifi.  When I think about things I’d otherwise be doing tonight (probably eating something fattening followed by doing something mindless), it’s a worthwhile trade off.

Back to work.

Under Construction

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Finding an appropriate design for the website is a lot harder than I thought it’d be.  Same with determining and producing the right content.  There’s a lot more strategy that goes into the design and structure of a website than you’d think.  Attention spans are precious (and fleeting).

I was going to write more about this, but I’ll write a synopsis later when I’m done.  If I’ve learned anything so far, it’s that you can sit in a chair and think about things until your head hurts.  There’s more to be said about actually putting forth an effort to get the thing done.

Hope

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Timothy Song

From Alice Song’s blog:

It is confirmed. 9/10 match. Not perfect, but may be good enough. I am trusting God this is His leading and guidance. We need to meet with the BMT department. I have a LOT of questions and concerns that I want to ask and bring up. This also means, we are going to try to fly out to Children’s Hospital of Texas to get a 2nd consult on the transplant. It’s unbelievable, at the same time what it’s suppose to be. My mind is racing with things I need to do, people I need to email, logistics of possibly relocating to the fears of transplant risks.

Thank you for your prayers. I have been encouraged beyond words from people close and far, even from people I have never met. THANK YOU. Your prayers have been my strength when doubts cloud over me. Please continue to do so as we make many life-changing decisions for our family.

Please continue to spread the word about bone marrow registry. This prospect of hope can be given to another family…

Lastly, would you lift up a prayer for Timothy’s health today? He had a fever today. He hasn’t had a fever in a long time, since April. I am hoping it’s just viral and will go away soon. He was pretty cranky today :(. Anytime he has a fever, it’s nerve-wracking for Daniel and myself.