Thursday, December 29, 2011

Bone Marrow Donations


Speaking of donations:

In 2005, there was a woman near me, living in South Orange, who had a fatal disease and was hoping for a bone marrow transplant to increase her chances of survival. I don't think she received it, and she died soon after the word went out. Before she died, her family organized a local drive for many of us to test for eligibility to donate. Many of us in the area went in and had our cheeks swabbed. It was very easy. We are registered with the Gift Of Life Bone Marrow Foundation.

Since then, I've been getting periodic emails about what's going on in the organization.

In the meantime, I mentioned this to my cousin who is only a few months younger than I am. She is diagnosed with leukemia, though she is symptom-free. She is on an experimental drug program to keep it in check. I don't understand this, so take it at face value. She is on disability, and the drugs reduce the amount of energy she has throughout the day. Since she might one day need a bone marrow transplant, I mentioned I could donate to her, if I'm eligible. She was quite touched. Of course, it would be a big deal for her, but I tend to look at it for what it means to me. It would hurt, but it would be a relatively small sacrifice for me, especially given how big the payoff could be.

Today, I got a call from Gift of Life, saying there's a patient who needs a transplant and I might be a candidate. She's 37 years old, and that's all I know. I'll be going in for tests, and if I'm a candidate, there will be one of two procedures. The 20% likely one will be pretty painless, and the 80% likely one will be fairly painful. Apparently, a lot of the pain comes from the drugs, not the procedure. But I think she said the pain should only last a week. I was picturing them carving open my femur (after cutting through my quadricep) to get the marrow, but I guess not, and that's a good thing, though I'd be game for that.

So this might happen. Stay tuned. I knew this might happen, and here it is, six years later, and now it really might happen. I'm rather excited.