Bone Marrow Donation

[superquail]

A friend of mine's mother just got diagnosed with leukemia and they are looking for bone marrow matches. I have been thinking about getting on a bone marrow registry for awhile, and when she posted a link on how to do it, I decided to go ahead

Comments

[parksdh]

Bone marrow needles are INTENSE

http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&source=hp&q=bone+marrow+needle&gbv=2&aq=f&oq=&aqi=

[superquail]

Yup. Donating bone marrow is painful.

[aspend]

Not always. There is a new way to do it that is just like giving platelets (it filters out circulating marrow tissue). It is obviously far more popular. I can personally attest that donating platelets is completely non-painful as I do it once a month!

[superquail]

Good to know! I feel even better about my decision to help out now!

[love_pirate]

Good call...I'm stilll working up to blood donation, but I'm terrified by the length of time it takes to donate and the quantity of blood they take. I'm also anemic, which would seem to matter, although I checked their website and anemia wasn't mentioned as a condition that would stop you from donating.

[superquail]

Don't do it if it's not right for you. I don't donate blood because I'm really uncomfortable with giving up that much blood and then feeling sick afterwards. I also figure there are plenty of other people out there with my blood type so it's not super-urgent. With this, who knows? I might turn out to be the only match they find.

I'm also kind of a dork for anything to do with genetics. I just find DNA fascinating!

[aspend]

For bone marrow it doesn't matter if you're anaemic. The test is just a little blood test, not like donating the full amount or anything. Since you're anaemic I wouldn't even bother trying to donate as they'll just end up having to turn you away. Some people just can't. But bone marrow is totally different and you totally should! :-) (I might be a chronic blood/platelet donor)