Happy Belated Turkey Day!

Not much to report. I am still just hanging out. Thanksgiving was spent with my family and Van. My younger Big brother Michael did all of the grocery shopping and Melanie and I helped him cook. I have much to be thankful for and it meant a lot to me to spend Thanksgiving with the people that matter most. I am looking forward to many more turkey dinners to come.

My white blood cell counts are finally stabilizing. With my new and improved immune system, I have decided that I need to get out of the house and be productive. My first idea was to start training Marshawn to become a therapy dog...you know the pets that visit senior citizen homes and hospitals. I think Marshawn would do a fantastic job because he is very sweet, friendly and smart. Plus he definitely brings sunshine into my life and I would love to share that with people who need a bit of cheering up. Unfortunately dogs have to be atleast 1 year old. :( Luckily I found a couple of other volunteer opportunities to keep myself busy.

I am tutoring at John Muir Elementary School in San Francisco on Thursdays with the Tzu Chi organization. We help the kids (1st - 5th grade) with their assignments. I've always loved working with kids and this was a great program to join. The kids really enjoy the one-on-one attention they get and some of them need a lot of help because they are quite behind on the fundamentals.

I also just started working at the AADP to set up a more structured volunteer/internship program. Hopefully we can get people to volunteer regularly at drives. I've noticed that most drives are run by the patient's friends and family, but it would be nice to have a core team of volunteers to work at any drive when needed.

It makes me really happy that I am able to dedicate myself to some great organizations. (Now I don't feel so guilty about all of my hours spent watching the Food Network channel and my new favorite reality show Jon & Kate Plus 8.) Please let me know if you want to join me! Both Tzu Chi and AADP can use all of the help they can get.


Love,
Michelle

P.S. Our new donor count is 1945. Big thanks to KPMG SVO, Most Holy Trinity Church, Great Exchange Church, Kaiser and Wat Buddhanusorn Thai Temple for all of the support and amazing results!

P.P.S. I'm running out of locations to host bone marrow drives. If you have a venue in mind please let me know!

Drives in So Cal

**Quick update on things..I went to see Dr. X on 11/2 and he said that my blood counts need to stabilize a little more before I can get the bone marrow biopsy done. He believes that it'll be at least 2 more months before I will get the biopsy. Hopefully shortly after that I can get the groshong catheter removed. I'm a little bummed because I was hoping to get both of these procedures done last week. (I can't wait to take a normal shower without having to worry about the catheter in my chest.) I'm going to spend the next 2 months building up my strength and energy so that I can ease back into "normal" life.

Most of the drives that we have organized have been with the Asian American Donor Program in the San Francisco Bay Area. However there are many other donor recruitment organizations throughout the US that you can contact to get registered if you don't live in the Bay. The organization in Southern California is called Asians for Miracle Marrow Match (A3M). This month they have planned many drives in So Cal and Houston to help me find a match. If you or your friends and family are in So Cal or Houston, please check out A3M's upcoming drives!

1) 11/11/07 From 12 pm to 3 pm at Vietnamese Baptist Church of South Bay - 2051 W 236th Street, Torrance, Ca 90501
2) 11/13/07 From 10 am to 3 pm UCI Campus, Irvine, CA
3) 11/13/07 From 10 am to 3 pm UCR Campus, Riverside, CA
4) 11/14/07 From 10 am to 3 pm UCI Campus, Irvine, CA
5) 11/14/07 From 10 am to 3 pm UCR Campus, Riverside, CA
6) 11/14/07 From 9 am to 3 pm UCLA Health Dpt, Los Angeles, CA
7) 11/15/07 From 10 am to 3 pm UCI Campus, Irvine, CA
8) 11/18/07 From 8 am to 12 pm Our Lady of LaVang Church - 288 S. Harbor, Santa Ana, CA 92704
9) 11/20/07 From 10 am to 3 pm UCLA Campus, Los Angeles, CA
10) 11/21/07 From 10 am to 3 pm UCLA campus, Los Angeles, CA
11) 11/23/07 From 8 pm to 12 am Our Lady of Lourdes Festival, Houston ,TX
12) 11/24/07 From 10 am to 12 am Our Lady of Lourdes Festival, Houston, TX
13) 11/25/07 From 10 am to 12 am Our Lady of Lourdes Festival, Houston, TX

Hooray to Lend a Hand!

Lend a Hand did an awesome job organizing the drives in Houston this past Sunday. LAH volunteers created posters and flyers and spoke on local radio stations. All of their hard work really paid off because they ended the day with 244 Vietnamese people registered! A Gulf Coast Blood Center recruiting coordinator sent an email afterwards and wrote "I wanted to see what the Houston donor center has done in the past. Houston has registered a total of 542 Vietnamese, since 1991. From Jan. of 2006 to Jan. of 2007, we only registered 97. Needless to say, you all were very successful this weekend!"

I am ecstatic about LAH's success! In just one day, LAH increased the Vietnamese donor count in Houston (that took about 16 years to build) by almost 50%. LAH is not stopping yet either. More drives are in the works and LAH is hoping to get hundreds more to register.

Bravo LAH. One of these days I would love to meet you and give you all big bear hugs!

Isn't it amazing what people can do when they come together to fight for a cause???

P.S. Project Michelle has helped register 1524 people total! :D