…some kind of way out of here….

since school has ended and i’ve been able to do some things on my long list of things to do that i read about here and there, i’ve begun a couple of new things.

the first one i started in september – regular blood donations. i have been meaning to schedule my next donation since i’ve been eligible for a month now, but i got sick and i have to wait until i’m better before i can actually donate again. i can’t remember if i blogged about blood donation. in short, everyone who meets the basic requirements should be donating blood regularly. it takes like a half hour to an hour maximum depending on your blood flow and the crowd at the center. your blood can be split into three different products, which means it can help save three different people. you’re eligible to donate again roughly every two months. it’s really not painful and if you’re “afraid of needles”, suck it up. it might be YOU in the ER one day bleeding by the gallonful.

the other thing is i joined: the national bone marrow donor registry (www.marrow.org). bone marrow is needed to save people dying from diseases like leukemia and cancer. according to the website, 70% of donors do not have family members who are an eligible match. if you were in a situation where your loved one was in desperate need of bone marrow to save their life and there was no match, i’m sure you would hope that everyone that possibly could would join the registry.

what being in the registry means: i will be a send a kit with cotton swabs in which i will take cell samples from the inside of my mouth. i’ll send the kit back and be officially entered into the registry. when a patient needs bone marrow, a search will be done on the registry. if i’m a match, i’ll be contacted (usually with other people), brought in for further information, tested, and then selected from the final batch of people who matched to donate bone marrow. i can back out at any time.

bone marrow donation isn’t painful. there are two ways this is done. the website explains this in technical terms, but basically the first way is similar to plasma donation. you’re given an injection for 5 days to bring the bone marrow stuff into your blood stream, and then it’s separated out like plasma (the parts they don’t need are put back in you). the other way is outpatient surgery. bone marrow is removed from your pelvic bone – you aren’t put under, just regional anesthetic. some discomfort while walking is common, but there is no pain during the procedure itself.

i’ve been pondering becoming a part of this registry for a while, and i never really read enough into it to see what a bone marrow donation was like. i always assumed it was really painful. knowing that it’s just a minor inconvenience makes it even easier to join. also, there is usually a $50 fee to join to cover processing, but a promo code is attached to the form right now that makes joining the registry free.

i think everyone should look at that website and consider participating. imagine if your son or daughter or friend or whoever was dying, and a bone marrow donation from an anonymous donor saved their life. you can’t imagine the kind of desperation a family goes through when they know they need a tissue donation and just can’t find someone to do a simple outpatient procedure.

being a poor young person, it’s nice to still have some kind of charitable act to offer to the world.

(i’m also an organ donor but i think i’ll hang on to all of those until i’m not using them. )

Filed under: Uncategorized on December 9th, 2009