Of Stem Cell Donors and Good and Bad Tennis Days

It’s hard for me to say what makes my tennis game great on one day, good on another, and pretty bad on others. It has the same variability as many other things. At the newspaper where I worked, we would say that writing some stories was like cutting soft butter, and on other days it was like pulling teeth.

I am going to tie this into my blood cancer history in two ways. First, I’ll address the times when I make a lot of mistakes. I have to remind myself to put it in perspective. As I said to my boyfriend while we were walking today, I’m probably the only recipient of four stem cell transplants who played three hours of tennis yesterday.

Sometimes a rookie

The other day, I started our group tennis lesson like a rookie. In a drill where we hit volleys back and forth, three people on each side, I hit it into the net more times than you should if you have played as long as I have. The coach, George, asked, “How many years have you taken lessons with me?” He mostly makes comments like this as a joke, but still, it bothered me.

I volleyed it back, though. I was wearing a white skirt instead of my usual dark colors. I got the white one to play over the summer at a club where they only allow tennis whites. “It’s the skirt,” I said. “I’m never wearing it here again.” Of course the skirt had nothing to do with it. And after a while, I warmed up.
On a different day, I was so good. It was the tennis equivalent of cutting soft butter or writing those news stories so easily. The ball seemed to hit the sweet spot on the racquet with almost every shot. I was in the “flow” zone.

Do donor traits transplant too?

We had enough people to spread out over two courts. I was on one court with three others, and George was on the other. These coaches can see everything, the good and the bad, even if they aren’t on the same court. He saw me hit a good forehand and asked, “Was your donor a good tennis player?”

When we took a break, I told him that after my two transplants with a male donor failed, I had said I hoped I could get a woman with a good backhand. It was just a joke of course. I knew that if my donor had a good tennis game, it would not transfer to me. Well, I did get a woman. And she must have had strong stem cells, which is more important than a good backhand. (I wrote and asked if her ears were burning and told her the story. She said she had taken a few tennis lessons but gave it up.)

Stem cell donation myths

A lot of myths and misconceptions surround stem cell donation. You do get your donor’s blood type, but you do not get other characteristics. Texas Oncology has a useful list of myths and facts. Here are a couple of interesting ones from their list, in which they use the term bone marrow transplant, or BMT, synonymous with stem cell transplant.¹

• Myth: If I’m a woman, then my donor will need to be one, too.
• Fact: Gender does not determine if a BMT donor is a good match. Markers for a food match are determined by specific proteins in the blood, inherited from both parents.
• Myth: If I’m a woman and my donor is a man, I’ll receive more than his blood and marrow – I’ll develop masculine traits.
• Fact: Even when the donor is the opposite sex, only the recipient's blood and marrow cells and immune system are affected by a bone marrow transplant. Much like receiving a blood donation, a BMT recipient does not receive the donor's gender traits.

In summary, my white skirt did not cause my bad day, and my donor’s stem cells did not cause my good day, except that they caused me to be alive, which is a good day in itself.