We are INCREDIBLY BUSY until FaerieCon is over at the end of this weekend. We have been frantically trying to get ready for this for quite some time! Please bear with us, and if you can come to FaerieCon, please do! Look us up at booths 1435 and 1433.
I have been registered as a potential bone marrow donor for... umm... about ten?... years or so.
Last week I was called and told that I am a potential/preliminary match to someone needing a bone marrow transplant.
I went in on Monday and donated another small vial of blood for further matching. Bone marrow transplants need to be matched carefully, to avoid any problems. A preliminary match is not enough.
I should hear within the near future whether I will be undergoing the final stages of testing, and then going into the hospital to donate bone marrow.
Bone marrow donation is one of the few transplants that the donor will regrow! They take *some* of your bone marrow, and give it to the patient who needs it, but over time you re-grow your lost bone marrow.
The procedure is not easy, and is not as simple as donating blood (the simplest way to save a life!) but is not as serious as donating something you wouldn't grow back, like a kidney.
All of this aside I am a needle phobic, and this entire thing has been, and will continue to be, stressful for me.
Please add me to your prayers and workings, in general. And if I do end up as a good match, I will be donating bone marrow. Which will be worse on me than on some people, because of my phobias... so I will be asking you all for your support and prayers.
If you find it ethical to do so, given that I know nothing about the person who needs the transplant, please add them and their family to your prayers as well. It is a difficult position to be in, and I sincerely hope they find a match, whether me, or another.
I was put on the bone marrow registry (with my consent, of course) after donating platelets by pheresis at the red cross.
A pheresis donation is easier on the body than a whole blood donation. I got my gallon pin donating pheresis... (yes the building is still standing; I am phobic, not superman!)
In platelet, or pheresis donation they take out a small amount of blood, spin it to extract platelets (or whatever they need) and return the rest... continue until you have enough. From one pheresis donor they can get platelets that would take 6 whole blood donations. And since you don't lose much fluid, you recover faster.
You may donate whole blood only every 56 days? But pheresis donation can be repeated every couple of WEEKS... not months. (You can donate whole blood within about three weeks? two? of pheresis, but after whole blood you must wait the full 56 to donate anything...)
People with good veins (not me) can use the two arm machine, which is marginally faster... it circulates blood out one arm and back in the other... the other option is the one arm machine, which has to stop to return fluid... then draw... then return... and takes a touch longer mind you, some of us only have one good arm for this <shrug>.
Another benefit is that the pheresis needle people are usually DARN good sticks... much better overall than the regular folks, although some of them are very good also.
Since they use a minor blood thinner (to avoid any clots) you cannot take any ibuprofen or aspirin for three days prior... this is not as important with whole blood donation where the restriction is usually that day only. Also, some people get nauseaous from it... or have acid reflux... calcium helps immensely, the nurses have Tums on hand, if you get at all ill chew on one!
You may need a blanket, the blood is getting colder from being out of you. they have blankets. I always get one because I can't cope with the sight of an IV anyway.
The first time you do Pheresis, you will likely be asked if you are willing to be put on the bone marrow donor registry. that is because they have to do the preliminary HLA (Human Leukocyte Antigen... a very basic genetic matching test) typing for some platelet uses anyway... Since you are more likely to get a good match within your own ethnic group, ALL ethnicities are needed in the registry.
Yes I have a needle phobia... yes I still have shaking fits going into the red cross... yes I have my gallon pin... three or so pints of whole blood, and the rest by pheresis.
Please note! Platelet and whole blood levels are critically low in many areas, please donate now!
Blessings,
Kirsten