passing forward

[cris]

A few months ago, I was reading Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go. I had spent part of the holidays watching the film adaptation, developing a film crush on Carey Mulligan, but also being touched by the work's themes on mortality, love and making the most of our brief time on this world. Because of that (somewhat bizarrely if you know the story) I

Comments

[brigid]

i've had bone marrow extracted (though less than you would have if you are a donor) and i can assure you that compared to all the insane accidents you've been in, it's a cakewalk.

also AWESOME, especially since you are part of a demographic that tends to be screwed the most when it comes to donation.

[cris]

If you do, I'd be willing to be one of your contacts. The Registry asks that you provide two points of contact, in case you fail to keep your contact info up to date and they need to initiate a search protocol for your precious stem cells.

[cris]

yeah, and let me know if you change your mind on that kidney donation. We could do a twofer.

I'm personally enjoying the idea of a Bourne-like movie where the Bone Marrow Registry is actually funded by a Nefarious Conspiracy to identify unique stem cells that are needed for a super soldier serum, and when some average guy emerges as a likely candidate, it turns into a crazy chase thing that also involves an old ex-spouse that he had put on his registration form years ago and forgot to update after they split.

[vestalvixen]

I've signed up for the bone marrow registry. I'm sort of disappointed I haven't matched yet, especially since there's a dearth of people of color who are registered.

I lost my license in a bar last year (I wasn't even drinking!) and since I had to go to the DMV, I decided to sign up as an organ donor. It's a weird thing to contemplate.

[cris]

yeah, I get weird thoughts about organ donation too. It's one thing to give a renewable part of yourself. Another thing to be 'harvested' and picked over.

The registry says that the odds of actually being called up are, like, 1 in 540 on average; and given the need for precise matching, it seems that the only case where being under-represented really affects the donor is that once you're in a pool of eligible candidates for a particular patient, it's more likely that you'd be called up if that pool is made of, say, 3 matches rather than 30. But getting into the pool for a patient in the first place seems to be the more uncommon event.

Ah well, we'll see.