Thursday, August 05, 2010

Seun Update

**

An update for those of you who remember my post some time back about Seun, my daughter's incredible friend from Yale Law School who was working so hard on a drive to increase bone marrow transplant volunteers while battling leukemia himself. By late last winter Seun's illness had advanced to the point he could no longer wait for a suitable bone marrow transplant to show up. So he underwent the procedure with cord blood instead. Cord blood transplants do not require as exact a match, but the odds of survival (already long) are considerably reduced.

The procedure--which includes killing every immune cell in your body--is nasty, and the road to recovery is long and horrific. But if anyone can make it, it's Seun. He is now out of the hospital and is doing yoga and lifting weights to rebuild his strength. He's still planning to try to compete for Nigeria in the next Winter Olympics, and has recently started flying again. Oh, and he's studying for the NY bar exam, brushing up on his French, working again, taking gourmet cooking classes, and recently finished filming an ESPN documentary.

If you want to be inspired and amazed and uplifted, visit Seun's blog,here.

9 comments:

Charles Gramlich said...

Wow! I'm afraid to read more. I'm feeling pretty tired myself at the moment just reading this snippet.

Steve Malley said...

All right. So now I officially feel like a whiny little jerk. I'm struggling to do a tenth as much and have less than a tenth Seun's troubles. Bugger!

orannia said...

I really hope that the transplant works!

Firefly said...

Goodness, now there is a very inspiring story indeed. One very good reason for authorities, to agree to the use of cord blood treatment for debilitating diseases! The very best of luck to Seun in all his future ventures.

cs harris said...

Charles, I'm with you, shamefully.

Steve, I probably should have added "humbled" to that last line. I don't understand how he does it.

Orannia, what worries me is that in addition to leukemia he also has lymphoma. How can you fight both?

Firefly, until Seun, I hadn't realized they did use cord blood for this. I gather it was pretty uncertain when they went ahead with the procedure, but without it, he'd reached the point he only had days to live.

Unknown said...

One of my sons battled leukemia and I know how hard one must struggle and the incredible courage it takes to keep on planning for the future. Seun, you are in my prayers, and I admire you so much.
Mary Jo Neyer

Unknown said...

One of my sons battled leukemia and I know how hard one must struggle and the incredible courage it takes to keep on planning for the future. Seun, you are in my prayers, and I admire you so much.
Mary Jo Neyer

cs harris said...

MaryJo, I hope all is now well with your son?

Susan/DC said...

I sent your original post about Seun to some people I work with from Nigeria in hopes they would get the word out. I'm on the donor list and have been for several years, but I've only been called once and then turned out not to be a good match when they did further tests. Seun is an example to us all, and my thoughts and prayers go out to him.