In Honor of Jimmy Concannon

Oakmont Blood Drive
9 Oakmont Drive Ashburnham, Ma
May 5 12:00 pm – 2:00 pm
Students and Staff
2:00 pm – 6:30 pm Public

It’s that time of year again! When I start hunting down every family member and any name in my contact list. Any friend, of a friend to find donors that are willing to give back to those in need. At this point, most of you know us and have heard our Red Cross story but for those that haven’t I continue to share it to help bring awareness and save others. My son Jimmy was a born on a beautiful June afternoon and for those that know what an Apgar Scale is he was a perfect 10, in me and Jim’s eyes especially .There was nothing different about my baby boy compared to any other baby in the nursery. I had no complications during my pregnancy or labor, but around 6 months old Jimmy had a sudden onset of what seemed like a head cold. It stands out so vivid in my memory because it was the first time my husband had gone away on a snowmobiling trip and I was admittedly a nervous new mom. I had always grown up around children, so it wasn’t knowing what to do but just being home alone in the big house just me and Jimmy. To make a long story short, Jimmy started the day off with a couple of sneezes and ended it by being rushed to the emergency room the next morning. I remember the doctors asking over and over how long has he had symptoms? How long has he been coughing? They didn’t seem to believe that it happened just as I said it did. Jimmy started the morning off with a few sneezes, then it seemed to turn into a runny nose. By night he had a cough and by morning he was wheezing, not eating and seemed pretty sick so I brought him in. He was sick alright, both of his lungs had filled with pneumonia. The doctors seemed to assume that because I was a young mom, I must have missed symptoms and that he didn’t truly get that sick in just 24 hours. Oh, how wrong they were! Jimmy spent 9 more years being in and out of the hospital before answers finally came. At 9 ½ yrs old Jimmy was finally diagnosed with Common Variable Immune deficiency with unspecified Hypo-gamma globulin anemia. You probably just said what?!! You may have heard it called the “bubble boy” disease. So let me break it down for you, you have 5 sub classes to your immune system and 3 of Jimmy’s parts don’t function properly. When you get sick your body makes a antibody response. I like to think of it as a recipe book. For instance the first time you get pneumonia it’s really bad but the second time it’s “walking pneumonia” it’s never as bad as it was the first time. Your body remembers how it fought off the infection and it stores this recipe in the plasma in your blood. The same applies to any vaccine you have received. So for every cold or vaccine you have ever had, you have a recipe to fight off that infection. Jimmy’s body doesn’t make the recipe to fight off infection and it doesn’t remember it either. Jimmy receives an IV infusion every 3 weeks of a medication derived from the blood and plasma that donors so generously give. Jimmy is almost 18 yrs old and will need this treatment the rest of his life or until a cure is found. Most of us think of car accidents, surgeries and loss of blood when you think about the Red Cross or donating. But many medications just like Jimmy’s are used for cancer patients, burn victims and many other diagnoses. Some of these patients may be dependent on these meds for the rest of their lives in order to maintain a quality life. We don’t tell our story for anyone to feel sorry, but to educate the importance of donating to do our part to help save lives. Any of you that know Jimmy, know he isn’t a feel bad for me kind of guy and you would probably never point him out as a “sick kid”. He is 150 mph or he is zero, but every day he gets up and goes at life like it’s his last day here. When you donate you save 3 lives, that’s 3 families impacted and effected by your gift, that’s quality of life for the patient in need, that’s prayers answered for the trauma coming in the ER door, that’s truly a gift of life. Please make a pledge to donate on our Sleeves Up campaign through the Red Cross We are hoping to get a 100 pledges!. To make an appointment you can either private message me on Facebook, text or call me at 978-833-9811. If I don’t hear from you, I’m sure you will hear from me. Every 50 pints collected will earn a 250$ scholarship for Oakmont seniors. Thank you so much for helping us give back and bring awareness, my heartfelt gratitude goes out to you all.
Sincerely,
Dottie