About Me

Hello!

My name is Kailee Makena Wells. I was born in December 1996 or January 1997 in or near Hunan. My Mommy and Daddy adopted me when I was a little baby from the Changde Social Welfare Institute in Changde in the Hunan province of China where I lived until that wonderful day we all became a family! I lived in Albuquerque, NM with my family until we came to Milwaukee, WI to be in the care of Dr. David Margolis and his great team of specialists in my illness, Aplastic Anemia, bone marrow failure, at Children's Hospital.

I turned eight on January 4, 2005. In the days following my fifth birthday celebration I began having a tummy ache, cough and runny nose. It got worse, and I was having fevers so high that my Mommy and Daddy took me to the Emergency Room where the doctor told them I just had a virus and gave me some medicine to make me feel better. But I didn't start feeling better. I started feeling worse. A few days later my parents took me to my doctors office, and again they were told I had a virus and would be better soon.

A few days later my nose started bleeding and didn't stop for five long hours. This time my doctor took a blood sample, and after she got the result she said I was very sick and had to go straight to the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit. 

At the hospital, more tests were done, and the doctors found that I had very few blood cells at all. I had to have a bone marrow biopsy which showed that I have something called aplastic anemia. This is a very rare and often fatal disease which means that my bone marrow is not making any new blood cells. Without successful treatment I will quite literally run out of blood and die.

I have tried Horse and Rabbit ATG, Zenapax and a bone marrow transplant which have all been very scary. I have to be very careful to avoid infections and bleeding and to watch for bad reactions to my treatments. My Mommy and Daddy are praying the medical treatments we have tried works.   

My doctors are still trying to locate a match for me.   My biological family would be the best probable match.  Unfortunately, we know nothing at all about them.  Asians and Pacific Islanders are a little more likely to match, although people of any race could be a  match for my bone marrow type. 

If you would like to help, please go to the National Marrow Donor Program website to find the nearest location where you can provide a small blood sample to determine your bone marrow type.  Every single person who does could turn out to be a life-saving match for someone who is dying right now from bone marrow failure.  

My family has set up this web site for me as a means of gathering and sharing to ease the journeys of others with information as much as possible. The tremendous outpouring of love for me throughout the world has helped my family to be strong during the very difficult times. With your support and continued goodwill I will keep fighting and help me get through this.  

If you have any information that you think might help, I want to hear from you!   And, of course, I love to get cards and letters.  With everyone's help, I know I can make it through this.

Thank you for visiting my web site and God bless you !