Thanks for reminding me to update my info! I had given a vial of blood for testing at a drive in college, years ago, and have moved four times since then.
My mother was once called after she’d matched. She went through multiple rounds of subsequent testing to see if she was really, really a match, passed all of them, but was never actually called to set up a donation - we assumed that the sick person had unfortunately passed away. She was so incredibly touched by the opportunity to save someone’s life, and found the whole thing extraordinarily meaningful.
More specifically, I think they take it out of your hip, from behind (via your butt), so don’t imagine anything going into your spine! I think you have some regional soreness for a few days, and shouldn’t be able to see anything during the actual procedure. A friend actually matched someone, and was given drugs to stimulate the production of bone marrow stem cells, which they then extracted from her blood rather than by taking it directly from the bone marrow, something like when people donate platelets. I’d think that would be even easier.
Yes, what **GilaB ** desctibes is a donation of peripheral blood stem cells, which is actually done more often these days than a marrow donation.
Many donors prefer an injection of a drug (filgrastim) once a day for five days. This draws the marrow stem cells out of the bone cavities and into the circulating blood stream.
The donor then sits in a comfy bed at a local blood center or hospital for 2-3 hours to undergo an apheresis procedure, which is like donating platelets, as **GilaB ** mentioned.
You can go here to learn about the differences between the two ways to donate marrow cells:
Unfortunately their latest updates report that Trevor has taken a turn for the worse and is expected to die soon. However his parents still hope that people will continue to join the bone marrow registry in his honor and maybe save other kids, so I hope more people will consider it.
I’ve been following the blog too, waiting for the ending that would happen in a movie: “We found a match!” But it’s not happening. It was in tears this morning after reading the latest entry, so sad for Trevor and his family but thankful for our own healthy baby.
Poor Trevor will never know what life held in store for him. He’ll die never having taken a step, or said a word, or understood just who these “parent” people really were. He’ll never have eaten ice cream, or laughed at a joke, or brought home a report card.
I was thinking all of these things while bawling my fool head off this morning. The cruelty of the universe knows no bounds.
At least, as my wife pointed out, he’ll die knowing what love feels like, because he was obviously surrounded by it.
I have a son who has leukemia. We found out about it in October 2006. He just turned 1 year old at the beginning of this month. For those interested you can keep up with his progress herehere
He has 4 siblings, 2 of which are full siblings. We just had the 2 youngest checked to see if they are matches for him. They are perfect matches for each other but not for their little brother. So they doctors ordered a preliminary check of the registry for matches and there was a 95% probability of finding a match for him, which was good news. My son does not currently need a bone marrow transplant, thank Og. He is currently doing well. He has ALL, which is the most treatable of the leukemias.
He is staying at A.I. duPont in Wilmington, DE, one of the foremost pediatric hospitals in the world. My wife stays there with him when he is there. His stays at the hospital are getting shorter, thankfully. She has met many parents who are dealing with children who have leukemia. A patient came in last week that was 2 weeks old. Earlier this month one of the children she had gotten to know passed away.
The little boy was only 6 or 8 months old and has been struggling with leukemia for several months. He had ALL and MLL. She was there the day he died. The little boy’s mother knew that there was a very high probability that he son was not going to make it. The hospital did everything it could to help him. On the day of his death his mother was laying in bed with him. She had just brought him back in after a week at home. As she was laying with him she said to him “It’s okay, you can let go. You don’t have to fight anymore.” He stopped breathing at that moment and passed. My wife visited shortly after that and said that he was still warm and looked like he was sleeping. She cried the whole day.
Leukemia sucks! :mad: I am fortunate that my son is weathering the treatments well. Our biggest concern is the mutation on the gene, which makes his ALL unique. The gene makes it difficult to produce platelets. This will have to be monitored for the next 4 years. If this hasn’t corrected itself by the time he is 5 yrs old, the doctors will address it then. He will be in treatment for the next 2 1/2 yrs.
So please, if you haven’t already, register for the bone marrow transplant list. There are many people, not just infants, who could use your help.
AFAIK (by way of qualification, my dad died of leukemia and I was well aware of the matching and donation process as of 1998 or so), the only limit is if the donor is so large as to make extraction mechanically dangerous or difficult. If, for example, a prospective donor had eight or ten inches of fat between the skin and the bone, that would be a disqualifier.
I was checking to see about the lower limits. I’m always borderline anemic and underweight, so although the spirit is willing, the flesh usually isn’t. Thanks for the code, to say I am broke right now is an understatement but as soon as I find out if I qualify, I’ll use it.
Yeah, being a parent does turn you into jelly. I’m watching my daughter nap right now on the baby cam and have been tearing up reading this thread.
Redfrost: What ever hope/good wishes I can offer you, please accept. I can’t even imagine.
While this is not an unknown viewpoint (after all, it’s been hashed out on the SDMB numerous times over the years), you probably won’t find the best audience for it in this thread. You’re welcome to start a new thread in GD if you’d like to explore it as a debate; if not, if you’d just like to vent, you’re welcome to open a thread in the Pit.
As a survivor of childhood cancer (not leukemia though), I’m ashamed to admit it has never occured to me to register. I will look into it, though I’m not sure if my medical history would exclude me. Though I am sure that some of my family would want to register.
Here is a Washington, DC area charity for children’s cancer patients. They focus mostly on being able to give children support through lots of different fun experiences for them and their families.
However his parents still hope that people will continue to join the bone marrow registry in his honor and maybe save other kids, so I hope more people will consider it.
Been trying to since I was in college…