Some bad news

My God invigilating was boring. Today was my second day here and I spent last night in my hotel room watching a marathon of Fringe. I completed five episodes before feeling sleepy. Did not manage to edit any more chapters of my the Haem UMMC website. Was not in the mood I guess.

The exam this morning was over 3 hours. Then I have to do some paperwork before driving back to UMMC with some documents. Back at work tomorrow. I also recieved some bad news from Sarawak last night. One of my patient who unfortunately relapsed following stem cell transplant drew her last breath. She had a good Christmas and at the end decided against any further chemotherapy when she learned that her disease was back. I think it was a very good decision on her part. Some felt that that was a defeatist attitude but it was always better to fight battles you were likely to win. With that decision, she survived an extra 3 months, spent it with good quality of life doing all the things she always wanted and died surrounded by friends and family rather than tubes and needles. Rest in peace Dear!

Rings out - Marrow harvest time

Luckily I did not have to physically do anything as the Paediatricians are on hand. It went smoothly. 

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Good Morning Kuala Lumpur!

Looking forward to another hectic but productive Thursday! There is marrow mobilisation scheduled for the morning, so leaving soon for UMMC. It is not very often that we require the actual bone marrow as source for stem cells. The donor today is only a young child, hence with the help of our Paediatician colleague, we will be heading for the operation theatre soon.

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Told You This Stem Cell Thing Will Lead Somewhere Someday

Hello! Is it me you're looking for?Part of my work in UMMC involves stem cell transplant as part of the long term consolidation among my unfortunate leukaemia patients. Oftentimes, we never even got to it, either due to patient not having a good enough response to initial chemotherapy, patient being too old for the procedure, have problem with their internal organs or carrying infection that will render the transplant process too risky. However, all this are meaningless if they don't have potential donor in the first lace. As a rule, we look amongst their siblings to donate. Failing that, we may be looking at the various stem cell or cord blood registry.

I stumbled across this article yesterday which I found interesting enough to blog about. Conventional stem cell transplant are not alien to us. There are now new avenues being explored for it's use, from the conventional to the bizarre. The success of autologous (source being patient's own) stem cell infusion into Mr A Allagra's in September 2003 in IJN captured the public imagination. I was fortunate enough to be part of the team to perform the first adult unrelated transplant in Malaysia, although my boss my not be impressed to be quoted as a Medical Officer.

Now, breast augmentation from stem cell? Hmmmm! Now, that's a thought. I am not sure how to response should a member of public ask me about it - hey! I am a stem cell expert after all!. And for the students, should I ask you the indications for stem cell transplant, please don't mention to grow breasts!