When I donated blood last semester I also signed up to be a bone marrow donour. About an hour ago I got a call from the Austin Blood and Tissue center. It turns out there is a wee girl of 2 years who matches my “type” and is in need of marrow. I told the lady who called me that I’m in the midst of a move and she said she’ll transfer my file to the East Orange Blood and Tissue center in Jersey.
She also asked me all sorts of questions about yellow jaundice and anesthesia and Africa and sex with men and homologous blood transfers and cancer and AIDS and how tall I am and how much I weigh and all sorts of other stuff to make sure that I was healthy enough for this little girl. Since this request for marrow isn’t “urgent” the process will take some time but more than likely I’ll have to give more blood for testing when I get back to NJ and then after that the decision will be made if they will grab some of my marrow.
This is so cool. Finally someone other than me needs my marrow. I hope I have enough, just to be sure I’m gonna go concentrate on making more marrow. I also hope they do this all before I fly out for India.
Posted by Mr. Keyur at May 14, 2003 04:59 PM | TrackBackKinda scary though. Bone marrow extraction is a pretty big procedure. Kinda cool since you think you’ll be saving someone’s life or something. I would think they need to get the marrow before you go to India because of a Jaundice/Malaria/Hepatitis issue.
Posted by: Akash at May 14, 2003 06:05 PMA friend of mine was in a similar situation and was seriously contemplating it. I don’t know if she ever went through with it, but if you do, remember its not like donating blood at all. Like akash said, its more akin to a biopsy, so don’t go running off to india until you have recovered!
Posted by: jzlee at May 19, 2003 01:57 PM