How funny would it have been if instead of swabbing my own cheek, I let the dog lick the swabs? What would they have seen under the microscope?

::looks at gaspode for the answer::

Ooh, good for you!

I hear that bone marrow donation is hella painful. But good for you anyway.

I think it's all a plot to get your dna so they can clone an army of you to invade Quebec. or put on a production of Cabaret. I forget which.

I think I speak for all bunnies in saying how proud we are of you, and what an inspiration you are to the rest of us. Seriously, TPS. You paid to sign up for an invasive, potentially painful procedure, with your only recompense being that you get a certain comfort from knowing that, if you go through with it when the time comes, some person, probably a kid, is going to benefit, and maybe even live, when otherwise, they might not have any other source of hope.

Cool, kid. Really cool. Every day hero stuff.

Oh stooooop ::waves hands:: I just posted to encourage others of you to do it too! Super strong bunny bone marrow!

You are awesome, TPS.

If you had let Twinkie lick the swab? They would see tiny little fat chihuahuas under the 'scope. Obviously.

(Awww, she's sitting right here, and she saw you called her fat, and now she's all depressed about her body. Plus, she hates you).

Yeah, well done, Pinky.

*wonders how much higher up TPS can go in essexjan's estimation*

That's awesome and thanks for the link. I made an effort to get on the marrow registry here in Nevada a couple years ago and the process was such a mess of incomplete/conflicting information and unanswered phones that I gave up.

This was very easy- fill out the form, send a check, get the kit, send it back. Done! It appears that this group, Gift of Life, works just to help people get signed up to the National Bone Marrow registry- apparently they started specifically to recruit people of Eastern European Jewish ancestry (which, coincidentally, I am), but will of course register anyone. What's also good is if you go straight through the National Registry, it's like $50, but Gift of Life has a grant where it's only $18. And I'm cheap.

I find it kind of horrible that you actually have to pay to register. Fuck, I know funding's difficult, but they should be paying you. How many potential donors would stop and say, "Fifty bucks? Pssshhh. Forget it!"

No wonder the system's screwy.

True, mudpuppie; I'm sure they'd make it free for everyone if they could. But shit costs money, and considering that all donor health care is taken care of, they probably just can't afford it. Sad, really. But I do think the registries do a lot of drives in person (NYU had one a few years back, I know), and I'm pretty sure those are free (i.e. the potential donor cost sponsored by someone else).

I'll do it when it's free. I don't get making me pay $18 to sign up for something I'll only get pain out of. It's already annoying that everyone gets paid out of donations except the donors.

Donor health care is taken care of out of the recipient's insurance.

TPS that's awesome. It's very hard to find matches for people who need marrow, and so the more people on the registry, the better their chances are of finding their match. Props to you and everyone else who's a part of it.

It's especially important to register if your marrow is from an 'undiluted' ethnic group because, for example, Ashkenazy Jews are only compatible with other Ashkenazy Jews, Zulus with other Zulus, etc., and the matches are much harder to find where people have married out of their ethnic group and the genetic makeup of their children's marrow changes.

I remember seeing a documentary about this a few years ago where The Royal London Hospital was looking for marrow donors for two children with leukaemia, and appealed to the local community. There was no problem at all in finding a match for the Bangladeshi boy, but no match could be found for the English boy, despite the fact that many more volunteers came forward to be tested for him. He died.

"It's especially important to register if your marrow is from an 'undiluted' ethnic group..."
posted by essexjan 10 October

So, another club us complete bastards don't qualify to join. What was that Groucho line?

I wonder what percentage of people who register for the registry are called to be donors. Anyone know where I could find such data?

Awesome TPS!

If you do get asked to donate, it can be a rather painful process, though. A very large bore needle is injected into your thigh bone and bone marrow will be aspirated (sucked up). If there isn't enough (there usually isn't), they'll stab the needle into a slightly different part of the bone and aspirate some more. Repeat until they have enough bone marrow. Donors are usually able to walk by the end of the day.

Did you sign up for just bone marrow or was it "blood and marrow" donation? Another common method of collecting haematopoietic stem cells (HSCT - cells able to make white and red blood cells) is to inject the donor with GCSF (granulocyte colony stimulating factor) that mobilized blood marrow stem cells (causes stem cells to migrate from the bone marrow into your bloodstream) whereupon they'll take a few units of blood from you intraveinously. They then sort through the blood and collect the HSCT.

Increasingly HSCT are collected from discarded umbilical cords. Some programs let you bank your kid's umbilical cord blood (at cost to the parents) while other (much better, imho) programs will bank random anonymous cord blood so anyone who needs it can have access to it.

Blood and marrow.

Yea, they stick the needle in you, but first they numb the area (so says the brochure from the Gift of Life). As long as there is numbing, I think it would be fine.

You have to pay to be a marrow donor? That is the absolute pits. That is worse than the pits, it is a complete and absolute travesty that you have to pay money for the "privilege" of putting your hand up to save a life.

*shakes head*

In some places (Illinois, for instance), you can register with the National Marrow Donor Program at your local blood donation center. They take an extra sample during your normal visit and send it off to the registry for you. Easy peasy.

*wonders how much higher up TPS can go in essexjan's estimation*

Triple ditto from goml!!!

I'm also a bone marrow donor! Yay for us! Its free to sign up in Canada but its a blood test instead of a swab test.

I signed up free in New Jersey, where they took a blood sample, and that was it. My husband and I signed up at the same time. I even got a pin! I would love a chance to help someone in need. I also have an organ donor card and my whole family has been informed of my decision. I'm not sure it's always free, but it was on this occasion.

I signed up 15 years ago and have yet to have the chance to save someone's life. It will be cool if it ever happens. Congrats to you. I wish everyone would do it.

And I thought I was being saintly when I sent my pony tail to the cancer kids.

Awesome, TPS!