I reached back with my fist clenched and thrust it forward as hard as I could directly into Josh’s upper arm. Overshadowed by the excitement of his turn, the impact didn’t faze him. I closed my eyes, clenched my teeth, and braced for impact. In retrospect I never should have agreed to play with him, he was twice my size. But the dead arm game was a great way to pass any school day. Over the next few days Josh refused to leave my side so that he could show off the extent of the damage that I had incurred from his fist. Personally, I didn’t mind the giant balls of blues and blacks that decorated my arm. I thought of them as manly battle wounds that would attract those females who were quite fond of the blue-black color group. My M.D. father noticed the bruises along with numerous other animated bruises that decorated other portions of my body. To him, these bruises weren’t consistent with manly battle wounds but rather symptomatic of a low platelet count. He threw me into his car and whisked me through Chinatown to Boston’s theater district where we had a date with a hematologist oncologist at The New England Medical Center’s Floating Hospital for Children. It was then and there that I was diagnosed with AML Leukemia.

A few months later my older brother was generous enough to bend over while a few doctors stuck giant needles into the top of his butt to extract his bone marrow which happened to match mine. And so, just one day before my 17th birthday I got an early birthday present - Bone Marrow from my brother’s ass. The introduction of new marrow into a human body causes new and different blood cells to be made. Once the new marrow engrafts, the blood type of the recipient changes to that of his or her donor’s. Often times Bone Marrow Recipients pick up allergies and other immune system characteristics that are native to their donor. It’s as if the old immune system has been sentenced to death by radiation and chemotherapy because it defiantly produced cancerous cells. It is then replaced by an obedient immune system that is capable of following the laws governed by the body and enforced by doctors. This remarkable physical makeover that occurs in the bodies of those who receive bone marrow transplants (B.M.T.s) in my opinion must be accompanied with psychological transformation. It is no coincidence that B.M.T recipients, who are lucky enough to survive their illnesses, often refer to the day of their transplant as their second birthday. Survivors of the procedure often report feeling like a new and different self. On July 5th 2000, my older brother, Dan Ehrlich, donated his bone marrow to me, creating a new Nathan Ehrlich whose birthday was moved back one day.

This new Nathan is now 5 and a half years old and has been in remission ever since. However, remission from my initial illness was far from a complete remission of health problems. Apparently, chemotherapy, radiation, and especially B.M.T.s cause a few side effects that can, themselves, be fatal. Doctors who know how to treat the resulting illness that always precipitates a B.M.T. – Grafts Versus Host Disease (GVHD), must closely monitor every B.M.T. patient. GVHD is the equivalent to a civil war that ensues in the body in the aftermath of a B.M.T. The newly donated marrow attempts to target and destroy the old immune system, which in turn tries to cling to life. This process aggravates certain organs and can cause extreme irreversible or fatal damage.

I remained in the Boston area attending Brandeis University, so that my doctors could keep my GVHD under control. Additionally it would take several years for my new immune system to be adequately effective. My body collected pneumonias, gathered sinus infections, and garnered fevers that had to be cured with readmissions to the Floating Hospital. Over the past five and half years of so called remission, I have been in and out of hospitals, flown down to Johns Hopkins for certain treatments, and laid up in bed from chronic headaches & depression, while trying to maintain my life as a young American college student.

For those who have been fortunate enough to survive the initial dangers of a B.M.T., there is little known about the physical and mental prognosis, due to the procedure’s young age. The unfortunate truth is that people who have been seriously ill very often do not speak about the traumatic experiences of their illnesses. They are left with feelings of shame, and or isolation, and therefore feel uncomfortable talking about something that is deeply personal. In addition those who are healthy often don’t want to be burdened by sad traumatic stories that remind them of their own mortality.

My health problems, which have hopefully by now become tired of tormenting me, although my full medicine cabinet indicates otherwise, have prompted me to combine my passion for filmmaking with my personal life. Using voice over narration, video diary entries, footage of current medical appointments, and still pictures from the days of my diagnosis and transplant, I will document my own personal experience as a B.M.T. patient. The remainder of the film will consist of interviews with other B.M.T. patients, and health care professionals, who both perform the procedure, and study its aftermath. In documenting this revolutionary procedure, this film will serve the public and medical community by addressing the physical and mental side effects of Bone Marrow Transplantation from the first person.

Sincerely,
Nathan Ehrlich
Nathe18@Brandeis.edu
(617) 513-4128

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