Travis admits that when Gift of Life called to say he had matched a patient, he at first thought the many phone calls were a scam.
“I missed the first call, then when I heard the voicemail, I didn’t believe it was real,” said Travis. “After they tried to contact me multiple times, I thought I’d better call back and hear them out.”
He then remembered joining the registry while an undergraduate at Grand Valley State University.
“I was walking with my roommate through the student center, and they were inviting people to swab,” he said. “We were just going past and thought it sounded like it could be beneficial to someone, and it only took two minutes. Frankly, I forgot about it afterward.”
Five years later, Travis received the call that he was a match for a woman diagnosed with leukemia.
“I didn’t know what the stem cell donation would involve, so even though I work at a hospital, I was a little scared,” said Travis. “Gift of Life explained everything very thoroughly. They outlined what to expect during donation and I decided to donate.”
His parents and girlfriend were excited for him and wanted him to get going and start right away – “They were pushing me pretty hard!”
Since he is an emergency room nurse, his workplace happily arranged a block of time off for Travis so he could donate at Gift of Life’s collection center in Boca Raton, Fla. The stem cell collection process is called apheresis, with blood drawn from one arm, passed through the aphresis machine to separate out the stem cells. The remaining blood is returned to the donor through the other arm.
“The Neupogen shots didn’t bother me, I had a lot of shots as a kid for allergies and it was fine,” said Travis. “I did get a few headaches and body aches, but it was nothing an ibuprofen couldn’t handle.”
Neupogen helps donors mobilize more blood stem cells in the days leading up to collection, and the aches this can produce typically vanish during or shortly after the procedure. Today, about 95% of donations are completed through apheresis, with the other 5% still done through marrow collection, usually for children.
“My girlfriend Ansley came with me to my donation,” said Travis. “We talked while I donated, had some lunch, watched YouTube, played some video games and took a nap. I loved the nurse who took care of me, she had also worked in an emergency department, so it was nice to swap stories and chat. The staff were super, checking in on us frequently.”
Back at work, Travis found that few people even knew about stem cell transplants.
“Even in a medical facility, a lot of people I work with are not really aware of Gift of Life,” he said. “It was pretty cool to come back to work and explain the whole process.”
“The fact that I even have the chance to save someone’s life is pretty unique,” he added. “This is a surreal feeling. I hope she’s in recovery right now and is feeling better, that would be excellent. I like to imagine that she’s doing great, and I’d love to get in contact with her someday.”
Having gone from not really remembering joining the registry, to being a little skeptical, to donating stem cells with enthusiasm, Travis hopes his experience inspires others to join Gift of Life and go ahead with donating if they ever match a patient.
“The whole process is excellent, Gift of Life sets up the whole thing,” he said. “They work out all the details, take care of everything, and all I had to do was show up and be places. It went very, very smoothly.”
Travis is currently an ER nurse in Michigan, but he and his girlfriend Ansley are preparing to move to Atlanta soon. He received his undergraduate and nursing degrees at Grand Valley State University, and when he’s not working, he enjoys playing “too much” golf, snowboarding, and card games with friends.