After a lot of research and thought I finally decided to follow through with becoming a bone marrow donor. I have finished all the paper work and signed up on the national registry, I am now I am just waiting to receive my mouth swab to be tested and put on the Marrow Network. There are thirteen countries in the world that use the onematch program, as a donor if you are lucky enough to be compatible with a patient you agree to follow through with the procedure and after multiple physicals and tests you start preparing to give while the patient begins chemotherapy. Unfortunately once the patient begins treatment it is not yet illegal for donors to back out which means if you do decide you are no longer comfortable with the idea, you also decide to end that patients life; I cant believe that is legal...very dumbfounding! As a donor it is a relatively simple process. They say it takes about 40 to 46 hours over four to six weeks to do all the pre-testing and then it is an hour surgery under anesthetic where they are actually extracting your marrow. They make anywhere from one to ten incisions above the pelvic bone and use hallow needles with syringes attached to draw out the marrow. Apparently the side effects are much smaller than I expected. You typically stay in the hospital for one night and are given Tylenol to relieve the discomfort (and if it is only Tylenol they are handing out you can pretty much guarantee it really isn't that bad), there are minimal risks to the surgery and all of them seem to become very minuet when you think about the joy of the gift you are giving.
Now the trick is finding a patient that I am compatible with. On the blood services website they say as a Caucasian I have a 1 in 10 000 chance of finding someone I can donate too however depending on what site of statistics I look at it can range past 1 in 20 000. I was so excited when I finally made the decision to go ahead with this, but truthfully it breaks my heart that I may never be compatible with someone. I would hate if I was not a match for anyone. I hope and pray that I will be a perfect suit for someone out there who has desperately been trying to find a match for themselves or a family member. During my research I came across many videos and articles written by family members who have received marrow. It was so heartwarming to hear their stories, to know that one person was able to save their life, to give them a gift of growing old and experiencing the world. How amazing!
So I guess your good vibes and prayers would be appreciated as I prepare join the Marrow Network. I really hope that I am able to be a match for one person out there...even the possibility makes me smile! Oh and feel free to join yourself...you too may just give the beautiful gift of giving someone else an opportunity at a second chance!
2 comments:
Jen, this is very courageous and I commend you. Did you know that Heather had a bone marrow transplant?
Yeah I did, I was trying to find a picture of her to post on this entry, she was really on my heart when I was thinking about this.
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