Lost

Chapter 32

My heart skips a beat, "Zach-"

"I know what your probably thinking, yes I still have hair" he offers me a small smile, "People with chronic leukemia's don't go through chemotherapy while they are in the chronic stage. I'll only lose my hair if my cancer reaches the acute stage, then I have to go through chemo."

Only now do I realize how tired he looks, he's lost weight too.

"When I was born my chromosomes got messed up, it's called the Philadelphia chromosome. Part of one chromosome moves to the other. This results in my bone marrow making an enzyme that causes too many of my stem cells to become white blood cells. When I was 6 my parents noticed how tired I looked and how I was loosing weight for no apparent reason. I constantly had fevers, these were all signs that I had leukemia. I took a blood test that told the doctors how many red and white blood cells my body had. They realized something was wrong and that was when I got diagnosed"

My brain tries to process all this information. "Can you be cured" I blurt out,
"I'm sorry" I immediately apologize, "that was rude-"

"It's okay" he interrupts, "I know your just curious. They only cure for CML (Chronic Myeloid Leukemia) is the Allogeneic stem cell transplant."

"Is there a possibility that you could get that" I ask

Zach nods, "the only problem is the stem cells have to come from someone else. They are usually from a relative who's tissue type is almost identical to the person. In my case I don't have a relative who's tissue type matches mine, and I don't have any brothers or sisters. If the tissue type isn't right my body will reject the cells."

"Couldn't you get anyone who has a very similar tissue type to you" I ask

"Yes but it would be a lot riskier for me." He answers

"I want to get tested" I demand

"What?!"

"I want to help you, please Zach. There's a possibility that our tissues types could match. I know it's a long shot but I'm willing to do it for you. I'm willing to do it for us"

Sorry yeah . I know it's kind of a boring chapter. I just wanted to explain Zach's Leukemia. I hope you understand all the science stuff, just comment if you don't. It's a little complicated but I looked all the stuff up so it is accurate. I promise the next chapter will be longer and more interesting.