For perspective about my problems, I think of 9-year-old Jaelyn Jimenez of Portales.

 She goes to Lubbock for weekly blood transfusions and chemotherapy for leukemia.

She endures a monthly 24-hour treatment — with a large bag of chemo slowly dripped into her veins, then flushed out.

During the overnight treatments her mother, Amanda Jimenez, spends the night.

“The treatments, especially the overnight ones, make her very sick,” says Amanda. “She throws up and runs a fever as high as 106.

“The overnight treatments lower her immune system for up to two weeks, so we have to be careful about exposing her to anything contagious.”

Jaelyn, diagnosed at 5, has not been up to attending Valencia Elementary for a year, but gets her assignments sent home.  Her 6-year-old sister snapped a photo of a bald-headed Jaelyn and took it to school so the kids would know what she was going through.

A number of area residents have donated blood for Jaelyn.  Blood type does not matter since the “credits” go into a “bank.”

“It made me feel good,” Jaelyn said about the donations.

“I started crying,” said her grandmother, Melissa Sena.

“I was scared to donate, but then I reminded myself what Jaelyn goes through every day, and told myself, ‘You can do this.’”

To donate blood, contact Stephanie Pointer at United Blood Services at 806-797-6804 or:

spointer@bloodsystems.org

Tell her it’s for Jaelyn. 

Contact Wendel Sloan at: wendel.sloan@yahoo.com