Recently, it has come to my attention that my dear friend’s father is very ill. He has a blood disease that will probably kill him. The only hope is a marrow treatment that may work. For some time I’ve thought about becoming a donor but never knew what to do. Now I need to. I’ve done some surfing on the topic and I think I have found a way to get into the registry in about 3 months. Does anyone have any experience with this process?
Hi Kay, nice to hear that you’re going to get typed. His best bet will probably be a close relative, but once you’re on the registry you could help someone else.
I haven’t done it yet (cop-out coming up), because my racial background makes up over 90% of the registry (plain old white). People especially at risk for not finding a match include blacks, jews and mixed-race people, as there are almost no donors on the registry.
When Rod Carew’s daughter needed bone marrow, they discovered that their racial & ethnic ancestry almost surely meant that if the immediate family wasn’t a match, she was screwed. IIRC, the family was black, Dominican, Jewish, some sort of eastern european and who knows what else. FYI, Rod Carew is a Hall of Fame baseball player, maybe one of the best hitters ever, who rarely if ever spoke to the press. When Michelle got sick, and they realized that there were almost no minorities in the registry, she asked him to please go public with requests for blacks, jews and mixed-race people to get typed and donate. He has been a vocal supporter of bone marrow donation since her death.
Sorry I have no experience to share, but it is an important topic to be discussing. Good luck with your donation, and let us know what happens.
Deb
I am on the National Bone Marrow registry. To be on the list, they basically need to draw about 2 to 3 TBS of blood for matching purposes, similar to getting blood drawn for usual tests out of a vein in your arm. That’s it, until you get notified that you match someone in need. There is a FAQ from the American Bone Marrow Registry with some good info. There’s also this FAQ that goes a little more in depth about how matches are made and how the marrow is collected. Please do get on the registry, even if you don’t match your friend’s father, you might be a match to help save someone else’s life. Please keep us posted. 
I donated bone marrow to a young child a few months ago. I’d never met her (still haven’t) and have no idea who she is - just that she had leukemia.
It seems that getting a match is quite difficult so (as EJsGirl said) you may not be able to help your friends father, but you may still be able to help someone.
Tequila Mockingbird has the details of getting in the registry pretty much under control.
As far as the donation process goes, I was basically given a complete medical examination (Blood tests, x-rays, etc) to confirm that I was compatible and that I would be able to handle the general anaesthetic required for the harvest.
I had a pint of blood taken a few weeks before the harvest so that it could be returned to me afterward. About 1800ml of fluid (blood, morrow and other stuff) is taken so you are pretty depleted and the blood helps to counteract that.
Then it’s just a matter of having the general anaesthetic, and waking up feeling like complete crap. Really, I felt awful. Totally depleted in every way. My blood pressure was so low I could not sit up in bed without becoming nauseous and beginning to black out.
Most of the crappiness goes away surprisingly quickly after you get your pint of blood back. Then you sleep for about 12 hours and you’re not too bad. I had a slight lethargy for a week or so, but that may or may not have been the case even without the donation.
Some people have pain where they took the marrow (usually the hip bone) but I had none at all. I had taken a week off work to get over the whole thing but really would have been fine with less than that if necessary.
Overall, it’s not a terribly traumatic experience. (Imagine what the recipient is going through :() And the reward for the inconvenience is well worth it.
I really urge you - and everyone – to be on the registry. To know that I helped save a young child’s life (I was the only possible donor they could fine anywhere in the world) gives me a feeling that I find quite impossible to describe.
When a friend og my sister’s lost his father to leukemia a couple of years ago we were both typed. I am ashamed to admit that I live in fear that they will call me. But I do anyway.
MrWhy, you’re my hero for the day. No kidding.
If they ever call me, I’ll do it, but I’ll be scared. And I hope they have better cookies than the BloodMobile.
My wife and I were both typed years ago, at some kind of mass-typing event that was being promoted. Both of us were subsequently contacted for another sample (years later), for more typing, I guess. But nothing more came of it.
We get a newsletter every now and then - mostly to keep up to date on any potential address changes, I suppose.
you should also look into banking some of your own blood ahead of time. The Red Cross used to discourage this, but now they’re gung ho for it. If you have enough advance warning of the donation, you can put away enough to pump you back up to normal.
I want to get on the bone marrow registry, but doesn’t it cost money for the DONOR to get typed and get on the list (unless there’s a local “bone marrow drive” in which you have a sponsor like a hospital)? Seems wrong to me somehow. It should be a free thing, after all, you could be saving someone’s life.
Wow, guys! I’m so happy we have people who have and would go through this. I know the chances are quite slim, but hey any chance at all is worth taking. We share blood type, so it’s going in the right direction. I sent away for appropriate info, so it should come together. I would love to be able to give some one that gift. It helps me feel a little less useless. I’ll post any new news about this.
Thanks so much.
When our son had leukemia we were all typed and are on the registry.
Both my husband and mother have been called back at different times as potential matches to be further tested for a specific young woman (mother) and male child (husband). Mom’s potential match also had another match that was younger and less of a risk for harvesting and hubby’s potential match died before all the testing and harvesting could be completed even though he went in within 48 hours of being notified that he was a potential match.
My oldest was six when leukemia came to our house and while he could only have been a donor if the recipient was his brother, he remembers being tested as a potential donor. Now that he is a young teen I have heard him mention he is planning to become a blood donor and register on a bone marrow donor registery as part of his 18th birthday activites.
Originally posted by SuperLorie
At the time that we registered (which has been over 8 years) it was $75.00. However, if you are hispanic, black, jewish, native american, indian, asian or any combination of mixed, then there are grants out there that pay for it. A call to the National Marrow Donor Program or the American Bone Marrow Donor Registry will get you headed in the right direction.
There are also bone marrow drives where all people are included, where a patients family and friends set up a fund to pay for others without funds to be registered. I’ve seen it several times with college age patients, where arrangements are made for sponsors to pay the cost of the patients peers to register. Additionally, if you are a regular blood donor, sometimes they can register you, depending on your blood donation facilities affiliation.
Hopefully some dopers from other countries will pop in and add links to the registry for their respective countries.
I think I could deal with paying a bit for the chance. Somtimes I feel as if I contribute nothing, and this would be a chance. I’m white and A pos, so I’m not likely to be begged for help. We’ll see.