Cavechat.org

Have any of you ever donated bone marrow before?

No. I hear it's fairly painful.

No. Why? Here's some insightful and first hand knowledge about it at Ask Metafilter

I got a call today from the national bone marrow registry that I am a potential match to a patient somewhere. I went in for my first round of testing today. Now it's up to the patient's doctor to pick who is the best match. There are 2 ways i could donate, again up to the doc, one is i would get shots for 5 days and then donate red blood cells or something like that, the take the blood out, it goes into a machine, and then they put what's left back in me. The 2nd way is to drill holes in my pelvis and draw out marrow. I'm just a little nervous that's all.

Well just an update....I got picked to donate. In should happen in a couple of weeks, I am waiting for the call with the info. I have to go to St. Pete for a few days and I will be donating stem cells. So that means the 5 days of shots and 2 days at the hospital. I posted more details on my myspace blog if you are interested.

Wish me and my receipant luck.

Please keep us informed Wendy. God bless you. You have bigger balls than I do. He, he. Will you know who the
recipient is?

tncaver wrote:Please keep us informed Wendy. God bless you. You have bigger balls than I do. He, he. Will you know who the
recipient is?

I know that she is 66 years old and has a very bad acute form of luekemia. ANd I think she lives in Minnesota. After 3 months they will let me know how she is doing, and after 1 year, if we both agree then we can make contact with each other.

How did the national registry know to contact you in the first place? Is this something you initiated?

ArCaver wrote:How did the national registry know to contact you in the first place? Is this something you initiated?

it was april of 2006 and the blood mobile was at my work, and i could not donate due to having gotten a tattoo within the last year, so they said i could give a couple tubes of bloods and be placed on the bone marrow registry, so i said ok,a nd two years later, here i am, a match to someone in need.

if you are interested in getting on the registry you can go to

http://www.marrow.org/HELP/Join_the_Don ... index.html

good luck wendy

wendy wrote:

ArCaver wrote:How did the national registry know to contact you in the first place? Is this something you initiated?

it was april of 2006 and the blood mobile was at my work, and i could not donate due to having gotten a tattoo within the last year, so they said i could give a couple tubes of bloods and be placed on the bone marrow registry, so i said ok,a nd two years later, here i am, a match to someone in need.

if you are interested in getting on the registry you can go to

http://www.marrow.org/HELP/Join_the_Don ... index.html

Thanks. And good luck to both you and the recipient.

Good Luck keep us posted!!!!!!!!

That's just fantastic and scary too, Wendy. I am really proud of you for doing that.

My wife's sister came down with A.L.L. several years ago and they were prepping my wife for a possible bone marrow donation. Unfortunately she passed away before they had a chance to try it. It was devastating. I really hope your donation makes a difference and everything goes well.

I got my 6 month update on my stem cell recipient. She is recovering but not yet back to everyday activities, which from the marrow.org website sounds about right, as it takes 6-9 months to a year post transplant to really get back to what all you used to do. Just thought I'd keep ya'll posted

Thanks for the update Wendy! AND for your brave and noble act to save the lady's life.

Cheryl