I may be a bone marrow donor!

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

I registered for the National Bone Marrow Registry back in '97, in honor of my dear friend, Larry, who had non-Hodgkins Lymphoma and needed a transplant. Well, Larry didn’t make it (RIP) but I signed up anyway in sincere hopes that one day I’d be called.

Well, nearly 13 years later, they called! I’m a possible match for a 62 year old female, a complete stranger to me. After a lengthy verbal medical history, they’re going to send off my frozen sample to do further tissue tests to see if I’m a good donor.

If I pass that hurdle, they’ll draw blood for a disease screen. And if I pass that, then I’m in like Flynn!

So in 12-18 weeks, I may have the opportunity to save someone’s life by giving some stem cells that my body produces with no guidance or directive from me.

How cool would that be?

2

That is very. very cool. Best of luck to you both. You are doing a wonderful thing.

3

Same thing happened to me a while back. Nothing ever came of it though, so either I wasn’t a match, or they pursued a treatment that didn’t require bone marrow.

Here is the link for the thread I started. Has some good information in it.

4

That’s terrific! I signed up for the registry a few months ago when they were waiving the fee, but I haven’t been called (yet).

5

Yay PunditLisa, CutterJohn, and Nightingale! Y’all have done a great thing!

I signed up for the National Marrow Registry in 1989, for the late Allison Atlas :frowning: I got a call back for a second test a few years later. No match so far. Still hoping to be helpful …

6

I signed up a few months back. No news yet.

7

I registered in the mid-1990s, inspired by the plight of baseball player Rod Carew, who was seeking a match for his Panamanian-Jewish daughter. As a biracial person myself it seemed like the right thing to do.

Interestingly, although I am not eligible to donate blood or blood products, I am still eligible to donate bone marrow.

And I am jealous of PunditLisa.

8

Same here. I hope they call me. IMO, they need to raise enough to waive the fee all the time. Not many people are gonna pay $100 to join.

ps. Good luck Lisa, hope it all works out.

9

I’ve been on the register for 10+ years. I’ve been contacted once. On that occasion I went through the next level of tests, but the degree of compatibility wasn’t sufficient, so nothing more happened.

Good luck.

10

I donated through this organization which asked for a $65 donation to cover the typing costs, but it wasn’t mandatory.

That’s cool, Lisa. I hope you’re able to help the person out.

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That’s where I registered! They had a drive at the Mall of America.

Me too.

12

That’s awesome, Lisa!

13

Thanks for the good wishes. I’m crossing my fingers and toes.

14

Posting to subscribe, also to say good luck to you and especially to the potential recipient!

I too am on the list. I can’t donate blood (RLS patients need to be very protective of their iron levels) but I’ll by golly donate marrow if need be.

15

Really? I’m not eligible to donate blood or blood products either (comes from having lived overseas in developing countries and in the UK during the whole mad cow thing) so I assumed I would be ineligible to donate marrow and never persued it. Maybe I should look into it now.

16

I signed up many years ago when a couple from our church had a daughter dying of leukemia. I’ve never been called, but maybe someday. I get the newsletter once a year still, so you never know.

17

How wonderful! I was going to sign up when they were doing the free thing, but I can’t donate–I take corticosteroids so I’m ineligible, which really sucks. Good luck to you.

18

I did also, and I hope I’m called one day.

19

Do look into it. When I was kicked out of the blood donor pool (for the exact same reason as you) the first thing I did was check with the marrow registry. They didn’t have a problem.

That was five or six years ago. I hope their guidelines haven’t changed.

20

OK, this is from http://www.marrow.org

So, it is case-by-case I guess.