Stephanie Rossi is a local woman who was diagnosed two years ago with an extremely rare bone marrow failure disease called Severe Aplastic Anemia (SAA). She recently left P.G. for Vancouver to receive a life-saving Bone Marrow Transplant. Stephanie spoke publically for the first time to mypgnow.com, with the hopes of not only raising awareness for the condition but also bringing attention to the shortage of certain healthcare amenities in Northern BC. This is part three. Part one is available here, while part two can be found here.
When mypgnow.com spoke with Stephanie Rossi of Prince George last month, she was of the understanding that she would be receiving a bone marrow transplant from her son, Jared today (Wednesday, July 14th).
However, the day before Jared was supposed to head down to Vancouver for the procedure, he was notified that it was no longer an option for him.
“What happened was they had a desensitization program for me prior to getting his cells, which was supposed to take my antibodies down because there was a problem with my antibodies attacking his cells. So they did four Bortezomid subcutaneous shots, which are like a chemotherapy injection, and then they did three plasma exchanges,” Stephanie explained.
During this time, Rossi’s team at the hospital found that the treatments she was undergoing to decrease the number of antibodies weren’t working, and her body would reject the treatment if her son were to donate, despite that he was a 7/10 match.
Doctors told her that they had no idea what to do at that point, but continued the search for a potential donor on the international bone marrow registry list, during this time, Stephanie’s two daughters, Chelsea and Maddison were tested.
Once she realized her daughters weren’t eligible to donate bone marrow, Stephanie and her husband Nevio made plans to leave Vancouver at the end of July if doctors were still searching for a match.
Little did Rossi know, one man at the hospital by the name of Charlie was working overtime in his search to find Stephanie a donor.
On Friday of last week (July 9th), just a few days before Stephanie’s initial date to receive the bone marrow donation from her son, she received some incredible news.
“We messaged my bone marrow navigator that morning and she messaged me back and told me she didn’t have an issue with us heading home. I was just going for my walk on the seawall and ten minutes later she told me that they found a match and I was thrown into shock because I was thinking this is so quick because it wasn’t even that long.”
Stephanie was told the potential donor is almost a 9/10 match and doesn’t possess any qualities in his blood that her antibodies would attack.
Additionally, Stephanie’s bone marrow navigator notified her that while the donor would have to remain anonymous, it is a ‘younger man’ man living in a different time zone.
Since Stephanie is of European descent and ethnicity plays a large role in determining donor eligibility, according to bethematch.com, she believes the donor is likely from somewhere in Europe.
While Stephanie was happy to hear that a random stranger was willing to undergo the procedure, and possibly save her life, she says she is still a little bit skeptical about the procedure.
“I feel kind of almost numb now. I’m sitting back, I don’t feel excited or not excited until it happens because so much has happened in the two years of having severe aplastic anemia. You build up and then you get let down and you build up and you get let down again and now I’m just kind of flowing at an even pace,” explained Stephanie.
Her entire medical journey has been full of ups and downs.
Prior to heading to Vancouver, Stephanie was undergoing weekly blood transfusions at UHNBC in Prince George because, without them, her blood platelet levels can drop to about 1/38th of an abnormally low count for a healthy individual.
Even though Stephanie is remaining cautious about her upcoming procedure, she says she is extremely grateful that a complete stranger is willing to undergo the donation process.
“There’s a lot of really good people in this world. To be willing to give bone marrow to a perfect stranger, because it’s not an easy thing to go through to get your bone marrow taken out and I was really worried about my son going through it and now there’s a perfect stranger willing to do that for me and that’s pretty special.”
She adds that she’s especially grateful because the donor is not someone even remotely close to her like her son, who jumped to start the donation process as soon as he found out that he was eligible.
Stephanie says she would love to eventually find out who her donor is, but that could take years and would require the donor’s consent.
Other than undergoing her weekly blood platelet transfusions, Stephanie says she is preparing for the surgery by staying as active as she can and maintaining a positive attitude, something that comes very naturally to her.
“I’m just waiting to see what the next step is and if it’s a go it’s a go but if it’s not a go the way I look at it is I’m, not any different than I was before we came here. I would just go back to the way that I was so it’s not really any worse,” she added.
Currently, Stephanie is just waiting for her doctor to officially sign off on the transplant, and recently had some blood drawn which will be used to confirm whether or not her body will accept the bone marrow.
Normally bone marrow can be frozen before being donated, however, Stephanie’s medical team says she will require fresh bone marrow, and given that the donor is living in a different time zone, they will be working against the clock once the marrow is taken.
If everything goes well, Stephanie will be going back to the hospital Tuesday or Wednesday of next week to begin the pre-donation process once again, as the procedure is tentatively set for July 28th.
Stephanie says she is amazed that regular people are willing to make this kind of donation every day, adding that if she knew about this bone marrow donor list when she was younger, she would’ve been happy to make the donation herself.