Blogathon « One Dog and Two Birds

Update on our friend Prakash September 17, 2007

Filed under: Blogathon, Pets — Bala @ 2:18 pm

Prakash has his website up and running now. For more information on his treatment, drives that are organized around the country, FAQs on becoming a donor, please visit www.prakashkrishnaswami.org

Upcoming Bone Marrow Donor Registration Drives

Date City, State

Sep 17, 2007 Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Sep 18, 2007 Cambridge, Massachusetts

Sep 20, 2007 Charlottesville, Virginia

Sep 22, 2007 New York, New York

Sep 23, 2007 Manhattan, Kansas

Sep 23, 2007 Troy, Michigan

Sep 23, 2007 Sunnyvale, California

Sep 26, 2007 Ann Arbor, Michigan

Sep 28, 2007 West Nyack, New York

Sep 29, 2007 Louisville, Kentucky

Sep 29, 2007 Cupertino, California

Sep 30, 2007 Cupertino, California

Sep 30, 2007 Santa Clara, California

Oct 13, 2007 St. Louis, Missouri

Given that the chances of finding a match for a South Asian is 1 in 20,000 mostly due to the small population of donors, compared to 1 in 15 for caucasians, Please think about becoming a donor.

The Pets

On a different note, all the kids are doing fine. We are looking forward to celebrating Nikko and Amy’s adoption days in two weeks and we are in the process of adopting Pepper (Finally!). We have been doing more backyard agility with Amy and will post videos soon.

Comments (1)

Our Friend Needs Help September 12, 2007

Filed under: Blogathon, Pets — Bala @ 4:53 pm

We traveled last week to Kansas City to visit our friend, Prakash, who has been diagnosed with Acute Myelogenous Leukemia.

Dr. Prakash Krishnaswami is a Professor of Mechanical & Nuclear Engineering department at Kansas State University, and is in urgent need of a matching bone marrow donor. However due to the low number of registered South Asian donors, finding a match for Dr. Prakash could be very difficult.

According to the National Marrow Donor Program, the need for donors is very high for ethnic minorities. The procedure for becoming a donor is easy. HLA typing is done with buccal cheek swabs, blood tests are performed to confirm a match in the national registry and if you do not want to go through the surgical procedure of donating the bone marrow, you can donate Peripheral Blood Stem Cells (PBSC). According to SAMAR (South Asian Marrow Association of Recruiters), For a PBSC donation, you will receive daily injections of filgrastim for 4 or 5 consecutive days. Filgrastim is a blood stem cell growth factor that increases the number of blood stem cells released from your marrow into your blood stream so they can be collected through an aphaeresis procedure. In this process the donor’s blood is removed through a sterile needle placed in a vein in one arm, and passed through an aphaeresis machine that separates out the stem cells; the remaining blood (minus the stem cells) is returned to the donor through a sterile needle in the other arm. Unlike marrow donation, PBSC donation does not require anesthesia, which is the most significant risk of marrow donation.

This is a good time for all of us, especially ethnic minorities, to think about becoming a donor, as Leukemia and similar blood disorders can happen to anyone. More information on the National Marrow Drive Program is available at www.marrow.org. For South Asians, SAMAR has information available at www.samarinfo.org.

Comments (2)

Adorable Sephora August 11, 2007

Filed under: Blogathon, Dogs, Pets, Sephora, Video — Bala @ 12:15 am

Sephora’s mom sent us this really cool video of Sephora having a field day with a couple of the toys we sent her for her birthday. She is simply soooo cute and adorable!

Comments (5)

Thank You! July 29, 2007

Filed under: Blogathon, Pets — Bala @ 7:00 am

Blogathon 2007 – Post 49 – 08.00 AM

The final post! Wow! We are tired and zapped of energy, but we made it! Even though we stated that we would write about dogs in the HA’s around us, it was tough to write 49 posts and hence we have posts about our pets too! Thanks a lot for everyone who supported us! Thanks to our sponsors without whom the exercise would have been meaningless! Thanks to the HA’s for their support! Thanks Amy, Nikko & Pepper for being patient with us during this 24 hour period! It had been a really good experience.

We bid a weary good night(day)! Though we are wrote the final post, and successfully made it, you can still sponsor for the next 24 hours. Please Click Here to Sponsor Us! Please visit Blogathon 2007, for more information. We have raised $260.00 so far. Thanks to all of our sponsors!!!

Comments (6)

Wakey Time! July 29, 2007

Filed under: AMY, Blogathon, Dogs, Home, Pets — Bala @ 6:31 am

Our next sponsor could be you! Please Click Here to Sponsor Us! Please visit Blogathon 2007, for more information.

Blogathon 2007 – Post 48 – 07.30 AM

Time for me to get up!

Why do you guys look all tired & weary? What you did not sleep all night?! But why?

Any way thought I would say good morning! I guess I have to wait till later to say so!