By Tina Comeau
THE VANGUARD
NovaNewsNow.com
Both Terry Thibodeau and his sister April Doucette cried, as did the others in the hospital room.
For the brother and sister it was emotional to watch as the bone marrow taken from Doucette’s body entered Thibodeau’s body intravenously to treat his leukemia.
“It was emotional for us all, my sister, my mother, my wife. It is basically a new life going back into me. Giving me a second chance,” says Thibodeau, who left Yarmouth about six years ago and now resides in Ontario. He spoke to the Vanguard by telephone last Wednesday.
It was during a visit with family in Yarmouth last August that Doucette and others noticed something wasn’t quite right with her brother. His colour was very grey. And he felt tired a lot.
Then one day, not long after returning home, he was filling up the oil truck he drives for a living and nearly lost consciousness.
“I had shortness of breath, loading my truck I was just about passing out. That’s when I really first noticed that there was really something wrong,” he says. “After that I made an appointment with my family doctor.”
That first appointment discovered his blood levels were only half of what they should have been. After more tests Thibodeau, 47, was eventually diagnosed with a form of leukemia.
“I was very shocked,” he says. “Being a healthy person, very active in my life in sports and things like that, and not being sick, it did shock me. I was wondering why it was me.”
Thibodeau started going through medical procedures and tests, including frequent blood transfusions and chemo, while at the same time there was discussion about a possible stem cell transplant.
Doucette, who is six years younger than her brother, travelled to Ontario to visit him, as he needed support and help, given that he was quite weak and sick.
While in Ontario, Doucette was tested to see if she could be a potential donor for her brother. Their other brother and two sisters were also tested.
“From there we waited about a month to find out the results,” she says. “When we had the results I was a perfect match for him.”
As her brother continued with his medical treatment, Doucette had to undergo tests in preparation for being a transplant donor for her brother.
But there was another step involved.
The brother and sister became part of a study involving siblings. As part of this study a sample of Doucette’s blood was sent to a lab in Vancouver to be tested. It was decided that to help her brother she would be a bone marrow donor. Aside from the bone marrow donated to her brother, bone marrow in this study is also being used in the research of certain diseases.
The bone marrow transplant took place on Nov. 18 at the Juravinski Hospital in Hamilton, Ontario.
“I went into surgery around 3 p.m. They cut five times on my lower back. They said they can poke up to 80 times in one spot and they take a litre of bone marrow,” she says.
“Once I was out of recovery my husband wheeled me up to my brother’s room and we were able to watch him receive my bone marrow as it was inserted intravenously,” she says during an interview at her Hardscratch Road home. “It was very emotional. When I walked into the room we both cried. Both if us hugged and cried, he thanked me for it.”
It is still a long road to recovery for Thibodeau. He is still on anti-rejection drugs and says he’s been told it could take up to two years to fully be back to his old self.
Meanwhile, he is very grateful to his sister for the gift she’s given him.
“I didn’t want to put her through a lot of pain,” he says, “But it basically gave me a new life.”
He hasn’t set any goals that he’s hoping to reach. Instead he’s just enjoying each day as they come.
“Right now I am living my life from day to day, hoping I’m getting better, stronger,” he says. “It opened my eyes. A lot of my friends, it opened their eyes. We just live day to day. We do what we want today and not plan for tomorrow.”
