Anybody been involved with the bone marrow donor program?

[Howell]

I have been identified as a potential match (I was IDed once before as well) and have made it through preliminary testing. Within the next 60 days I'll find out if they want to go to final testing with me.

Anybody donated marrow or T-cells before?

 

[blakerwry]

I've donated clothes, food, money, time, and toys but always been a bit histitant to donate anything from my own body.

I was planning on donating blood at one point, but I forget now why I ended up not doing so...

 

[Fushigi]

I've donated blood & money. Pretty rare for me to have anything else to give. Haven't considered any other body pieces (except I, of course, signed the donor portion on my drivers license).

Last time I gave blood I passed out because I hadn't eaten a large enough meal beforehand. While my fault and easily corrected, it made me nervous about donating again. I will, but other aspects of my fitness are a priority.

 

[ddrueding]

Considering the number of fairly hard-core drugs I've taken significant amounts of in the past; I don't think they want anything from me.

 

[Mickey]

I've gone through the initial screening like you and have agreed to donate if further testing shows a match. Haven't heard anything yet, though. I admit some of the listed side effects look worrisome, but if I'm a match and opt not to donate, my conscience wouldn't let me sleep at night.

I don't anyone personally that's donated, though.

 

[Clocker]

I went through the bone marrow screening as well. No matches yet. I would find it to be a great opportunity to have the chance to extend or save someone life...

C

 

[Howell]

I admit some of the listed side effects look worrisome, ...

I inquired about the actual procedure if there is a match. The lady said that some people could go back to work the next day but some could be out for a week. Typical was two days off then back to work.

Can someone who is identified as a potential donor match decline to donate?

The time I was matched before I don't remember why but I was not asked to do the next step. Could have been they found a better match or also likely I was in the middle of racing season.

The side effects seem reasonable considering the procedure and the fact that bone marrow makes white blood cells, red blood cells, and platelets..

The procedure for harvesting bone marrow has changed very little since 1970. Marrow is collected from the posterior iliac crest using large-bore needles to aspirate the marrow into syringes that have been rinsed with a heparin-containing solution. The cortical bone is penetrated, and 4-10 mL of marrow is aspirated and transferred to a container with anticoagulant solution. The aspiration needle is advanced several millimeters, and the process is repeated. Several aspirations can be made through a single bone puncture, and the bone may be punctured multiple times from a single skin entry site.

A typical collection involves 200-300 marrow aspirations through two skin incisions (2). The volume collected is determined by the nucleated cell count in the collected marrow and by the recipient's weight. The target is usually two to four x 108 nucleated cells per kilogram of the recipient's weight (2). On average, one liter of marrow is collected. NMDP regulations prohibit collections larger than 1.5 liters.

After the collection is completed, the donor's hemoglobin and hematocrit are measured, and if necessary, the donor is given an autologous transfusion of packed red blood cells from units of blood usually collected from the donor approximately a week before the harvest.

dd, They did not ask me any questions relating to drug use except for the questions about needles. The questions were typical of a regular blood donation. On the website I can find no references that would possibly rule you out except for this maybe.

They also have International Donor Centers.

 

[Mickey]

A second method of extracting marrow was also listed, filtering your blood through a machine to "catch" the stem cells needed. For two weeks before the procedure, you're supposed to be taking some type of medication to stimulate production of more blood stem cells, which are then harvested.

 

[ddrueding]

I was very lucky in being able to avoid all those. But I have to wonder what the long term effects of excessive amounts of Lithium, Valium, Acid, Cocaine, Ecstacy, and quite a few others would have on bloodwork; brobably some interesting results. Quite a few of my friends have suffered heart attacks and other nasty things in their mid-twenties from lower exposures.

dd, They did not ask me any questions relating to drug use except for the questions about needles. The questions were typical of a regular blood donation. On the website I can find no references that would possibly rule you out except for this maybe.

 

[Howell]

A second method of extracting marrow was also listed, filtering your blood through a machine to "catch" the stem cells needed. For two weeks before the procedure, you're supposed to be taking some type of medication to stimulate production of more blood stem cells, which are then harvested.

Yes. The reciepient's doctor requests which method. Sometimes both (at seperate times). The T-cell methods requires the donor to sit with needles in both arms for 5 hours.

 

[Adcadet]

My school is a major adult and pediatric bone marrow transplant center. In fact, the worlds first successful BMT occured here in 1968, and we now have the second-largest unrelated donor experience in the US. My class had one of the docs from the Dept of Medicine bring in his patient, who in 1983 was the first to have a BMT for his type of cancer, and had to fight his insurance company to cover it. 21 years later he's doing great, whereas he would have been dead for close to 20 years without his transplant. We regularly see people wearing masks walking around outside our classroom, many of whom are BMT patients. And over the summer and past year I saw a few BMT patients in the ICU, many of whom died.

It's a wonderful, life-saving technology. God bless people willing to donate, 'cause without you many of these people would have no hope.