Metro Nurse Becomes A Patient After Cancer Diagnosis

<p>Jennifer Anderson has been writing in a blog, sharing what she's been battling for months.&nbsp;</p>

Wednesday, December 28th 2016, 10:47 pm

By: News 9


Jennifer Anderson has been writing in a blog, sharing what she's been battling for months.

The always healthy, heart surgery nurse was diagnosed with an aggressive form of leukemia.

“I was almost in complete shock for a couple of days,” she said.

Anderson had become the patient, started chemotherapy immediately, and after five weeks in the hospital, she finally went home.

“I tried to enjoy every day, every moment, soak in the kids coming home from the school bus, you know just the small things,” she told News 9.

Doctors said Anderson needed a stem cell transplant to beat the disease. Those kinds of donations are made by people ages 18 to 44 at the Oklahoma Blood Institute (OBI), and then they can be entered in the 'Be The Match' registry.

“Your blood is actually going into one of the machines,” Audrey Womack, ‘Be the Match’ coordinator said. “It has the capability to filter out your blood’s stem cells, which will go into the patient’s body and create a whole new blood making system.

After months of waiting, Anderson just learned a marrow match was found for her and she said she will get her transplant after the first of the year.

“When you get the call of someone that … that you don’t even know, who has decided to help another person live, it’s amazing,” Anderson said.

Click here to help Jennifer Anderson.

If you want to help, the OBI and the OKC Thunder are holding a blood drive 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Friday at the Cox Convention Center. Donors can make an appointment, if they’d like.

One donor will win a pair of lower-level Thunder tickets. 

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