I would not consider myself a masochist..but for the betterment of perfect strangers, I signed up to be a blood marrow donor. In all seriousness, I would love to help save a life. Yes there is time and recovery involved. Yes, you either get put out and marrow taken from your hip or your blood filtered through a machine to separate what they need while putting the rest back in you. O.K. there is discomfort from some medication you have to take for a few days before the blood filtering procedure is done but hey...can we say keeping ourselves from "volunteering for pain" is worth it? Not when a life is in the balance.
I guess all I can think about is the pain and suffering of the ones dealing with the cancer. I have not had a personal experience with it or seen someone go through it. But I can only imagine what a horror chemotherapy is. Not to mention what the entire family is going through waiting for help to come for there loved one, imagining life without them.
So that answers it. I am glad to help, I just hope they find someone in need :)
Donor <-----If your interested
So you just sign up and they call you if they need you? Very brave.
ReplyDeleteBasically...the spit sample you give them at first matches you as a donor on a very basic level. So if you match someone in need with the basics, then you go give them a blood sample where they do a more thorough match as well as check you for any diseases (STD's, diabetes, ect) If you get past that stage then they let you know what kind of donation they need (blood or marrow) And you can at any point decide you no longer want to donate. But yea..if I could help save a life, that would be pretty kick ass :)
ReplyDeleteI have given bone marrow and it hurts like a son of a bitch! They lay you on your side and literally use a "bone auger" to drill a hole in your hip bone to extract the marrow. It looks just like a fancy, shiny craftsman drill. And because they can't numb bone, you feel the whole thing. I was also very weak and exhausted for 2 weeks afterward, while my body recovered.
ReplyDeleteEven though it was a lot worse than I expected, I would still do it again. I am still on the list and will go give again if they call. --Heather
That's cool that you have done it. They say on there web site that they put you under for the bone marrow one. I applaud your bravery doing it awake! But if you look at what its for, it's pretty cool!
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