I donated a few years back. I signed up, not really expecting anything to happen, and within a few months I ended up matching with someone. The process these days is really easy, and if you're...
I donated a few years back. I signed up, not really expecting anything to happen, and within a few months I ended up matching with someone.
The process these days is really easy, and if you're worried about painful extraction operations, don't be. For three days, I had an injection at home to get the relevant cells flowing into my blood stream, then I went to a hospital where I spent all day sitting in a bed playing on my laptop while hooked up to a centrifuge which separated the stem cells.
Very easy, and very relaxed. If you have a registry near you, it's really easy to get started - and 100% worth doing it!
Mine was about 5 years ago now. It wasn't quite painless, but it wasn't horrible at all; they said it'd feel like I slipped on the ice and bruised my butt, and that's exactly what I felt. For my...
Mine was about 5 years ago now. It wasn't quite painless, but it wasn't horrible at all; they said it'd feel like I slipped on the ice and bruised my butt, and that's exactly what I felt.
For my procedure, they put me under. From what I was told, they used a long needle and poked four small holes at my waistline on my back, and then through that, took small amounts of marrow from many points in my pelvic bone. It required no stitches to close up or anything, and then it was just a bit sore to sit down for a couple days, but nothing a bit of tylenol couldn't fix. I would gladly do it again.
I was recently watching a Rebecca Watson video, about RFK Jr. and Covid misinformation of all things, and learned through that about the existence of a national registry for bone marrow donors....
After doing a little more research on what donating meant, and signing up myself, I came across the linked article which inspired me to post about it here. I hope it encourages a few people to sign up, especially if you're apart of one of the populations underrepresented in the registry. It's a fantastic way to directly make a massive difference to someone's life, and there's nothing more noble than helping a stranger. Here is an additional article from Mayo Clinic which gives a better outline of bone marrow stem cell and blood stem cell donation.
I personally registered through BeTheMatch.org, but the organization that the article is from also allows you to register through them (DKMS registration)
If you've been through the donation process, what was it like? What's something that a first-time donor can expect when they're call on to donate? Any insights on how much more people on the registry would help? Any other thoughts on donating blood stem cells or marrow stem cells would be great too!
I had the opportunity to walk through a cancer center bone marrow transplant recovery unit a couple of weeks ago, and it's a remarkable achievement of both medicine and technology (positive...
I had the opportunity to walk through a cancer center bone marrow transplant recovery unit a couple of weeks ago, and it's a remarkable achievement of both medicine and technology (positive pressure HEPA-filtered rooms, advanced support equipment). I'd give marrow in a heartbeat if I was in the desired age range.
However, a good chunk of that bone marrow transplant unit is being repurposed to CAR-T autologous stem cell immunotherapies.
This is good news, in the sense that responsive cancers can be controlled (possibly, cured) without donated tissue. CAR-T avoids the long-term risks of graft vs. host disease and other problems of xenografts, but can still have some drastic side effects that require rescue procedures like those for bone marrow transplant.
IANAD, but these are really interesting times for biomedicine and informatics. If the whole system remains affordable...
I donated a few years back. I signed up, not really expecting anything to happen, and within a few months I ended up matching with someone.
The process these days is really easy, and if you're worried about painful extraction operations, don't be. For three days, I had an injection at home to get the relevant cells flowing into my blood stream, then I went to a hospital where I spent all day sitting in a bed playing on my laptop while hooked up to a centrifuge which separated the stem cells.
Very easy, and very relaxed. If you have a registry near you, it's really easy to get started - and 100% worth doing it!
Mine was about 5 years ago now. It wasn't quite painless, but it wasn't horrible at all; they said it'd feel like I slipped on the ice and bruised my butt, and that's exactly what I felt.
For my procedure, they put me under. From what I was told, they used a long needle and poked four small holes at my waistline on my back, and then through that, took small amounts of marrow from many points in my pelvic bone. It required no stitches to close up or anything, and then it was just a bit sore to sit down for a couple days, but nothing a bit of tylenol couldn't fix. I would gladly do it again.
I was recently watching a Rebecca Watson video, about RFK Jr. and Covid misinformation of all things, and learned through that about the existence of a national registry for bone marrow donors.
After doing a little more research on what donating meant, and signing up myself, I came across the linked article which inspired me to post about it here. I hope it encourages a few people to sign up, especially if you're apart of one of the populations underrepresented in the registry. It's a fantastic way to directly make a massive difference to someone's life, and there's nothing more noble than helping a stranger. Here is an additional article from Mayo Clinic which gives a better outline of bone marrow stem cell and blood stem cell donation.
I personally registered through BeTheMatch.org, but the organization that the article is from also allows you to register through them (DKMS registration)
If you've been through the donation process, what was it like? What's something that a first-time donor can expect when they're call on to donate? Any insights on how much more people on the registry would help? Any other thoughts on donating blood stem cells or marrow stem cells would be great too!
I had the opportunity to walk through a cancer center bone marrow transplant recovery unit a couple of weeks ago, and it's a remarkable achievement of both medicine and technology (positive pressure HEPA-filtered rooms, advanced support equipment). I'd give marrow in a heartbeat if I was in the desired age range.
However, a good chunk of that bone marrow transplant unit is being repurposed to CAR-T autologous stem cell immunotherapies.
This is good news, in the sense that responsive cancers can be controlled (possibly, cured) without donated tissue. CAR-T avoids the long-term risks of graft vs. host disease and other problems of xenografts, but can still have some drastic side effects that require rescue procedures like those for bone marrow transplant.
IANAD, but these are really interesting times for biomedicine and informatics. If the whole system remains affordable...