Compartment 14B
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Who wouldn't save a life? 2003-11-14 - 4:00 p.m. This is a Public Service Announcement, brought on by the talk of needles in my last entry. I am, despite my legendary fear of needles, on the Bone Marrow Donor Registry. Why, you might ask, would I do such a thing if my main phobia in life is needles? Because I compare the effect on me to the effect on the recipient. I would be a bit scared. I�d have blood taken multiple times for tests, and then if everything was a go and I was a good match, I�d be knocked out and up to 1200 millilitres of marrow taken from my large bones such as my pelvis or hip. That�s over a litre. If you live in the U.S. or a non-metric country, picture a quart of milk and you�d be not far off. I�d be sore for a couple of weeks while my body was replacing the marrow and recovering from its removal. OK, that�s kind of grim. Now consider the effect on the recipient. They would get a chance to live. That�s it. That�s the one important factor for the recipient that balances out anything I could think of for me the donor. People that need marrow are also typically young. Children. Teenagers getting ready to go off to school. Young parents. Getting a transplant could mean a whole lifetime to look forward to. How could I not sign up for the program? It�s not easy to find a match and if someone matches me, they probably won�t match many others. I haven�t been called at this point because, presumably, they haven�t needed anyone with my particular configuration of markers. When they do I will be happy to go and see if I can help someone. It�s not like a kidney; marrow grows back. Click here for more info if you live in Canada.
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