In loving memory Mikey

Tuesday, February 3, 2009 by twocatsdesign

Today I got a phone call from the mother of my Scottish friend Mikey. I didn’t know Mikey’s mum, so it was kind of awkward to speak to her. First I had to “set” my ears to English, and than I had a little trouble with the Scottish accent. She told me the sad news, Mikey has passed away last Wednesday at the age of 38 years.

Mikey and I have a special bond, we both have the same very rare bonemarrow disorder DBA and we shared our birthdays. Diamond Blackfan Anemia, is a very rare disorder which we are born with and is very similar to Thalassemia Major and Aplastic Anemia. Our bonemarrow doesn’t make enough red cells to survive, other cells like Thrombocytes and Leucocytes are also decreased. So every month we receive a bloodtransfusion. Mikey also suffered from time to time of Neutropenia, it means that he didn’t make enough white cells, so when he was neutropenic, he couldn’t leave the house because he could get very sick.
Due to Iron-Overload, a thing you can’t avoid it is a side effect of getting so many transfusions, we both developed severe diseases amongst Cardiomyopathy. Mikey passed away last Wednesday due to Cardiac arrest, his heart simply stopped.

I get to know him through an adult DBA-yahoo group eight years ago, and we met him once. I often spoke to him through messenger. He was a big fan of the Hard Rock Cafe and traveled all over the world to visit them, he always bought a T-shirt as a throphy. So one time he decided to come over to see me and take us to the HRC in Amsterdam. We offered him to stay at our house, you can imagine how stressed out I was, but we had a great time, and laughed a lot. We didn’t talk that often about our disorder, most of the time it was just fun. In the past year we didn’t hear much of him, and we already suspect that something was real bad. He had started with new medication to decrease his iron-overload, and since then his condition was getting worse. Last Christmas we send him a card, and we get one back, so he was still alive and kicking. That was the last time we heard from him.

Now it’s so final, I shall never talk to him on the Internet or receive silly text messages from him. He will never come over again to take us to the HRC. I am glad we’ve met him, and get to know him. We always remember him, his weird kind of humor, his laughter, his craziness and his funny accent. We shall miss him, but we are glad that he is free and now can do what ever he likes.

Goodbye Mikey, have a save trip, say hello to Dawn from me, and we will catch up someday.