Wes Wallace donates white blood cells to his daughter

ROYAL CITY - For the second time, Royal City resident Wes Wallace has donated lymphocytes (white blood cells) to help his daughter Michelle survive leukemia.

"Michelle is my DNA," he said Friday. "She carries my bone marrow. She carries my blood."

Wallace spent nearly all of last week in Seattle for the transplant. He returned Friday in time to attend the spaghetti dinner and silent auction held at Royal High School to benefit Michelle.

Wallace went over on Sunday and spent the afternoon with his daughter and wife Kathie. Monday he got down to the business of saving Michelle.

Monday, Wallace underwent a battery of necessary tests and questions, and he gave up 10 vials of blood. On Tuesday he had a complete physical. On Wednesday he underwent an EKG.

Thursday was the big day. Wallace was connected to a centrifuge, and blood was taken from one arm. It was returned to the other after the lymphocytes were harvested.

The procedure took about three hours. Enough white blood cells were taken to use now and to save in case of future need.

Wallace said only a small fraction of his donation was injected into Michelle. Doctors had proposed 25 milliliters and used only 10. There are more than enough lymphocytes if Michelle needs them again.

"I signed off to donate to research and to other patients who might be able to use them," Wallace said.

The reason for the transplant is that chemotherapy, which is battling the cancer, has eliminated nearly all of Michelle's lymphocytes, and she can't produce enough to fight foreign bodies in her blood stream.

In an interesting bit of information, Wallace said a mutant leukemic cell "hid out in (Michelle's) body for seven years." That's why the illness the family thought had been whipped in 2005 came back.

Wallace said there was some pain to the procedure. He said the needles used were quite large.

"It's not like getting a shot," he said.

Wallace said his five days in Seattle gave him a new appreciation for his wife. She's been in Seattle since March looking after Michelle's needs.

The next step, Wallace said, is to wait. Doctors said they could see a change in a matter of days, but it could take months.