has anyone been a bone marrow donor?

[juicychops]

im considering it but its a lot more involved than just giving blood

can anyone tell me about it?

bump because i am also interested

I haven't been one, but I am on the Anthony Nolan register.

See here

Not yet donated bone marrow...

but i am on the register so if i was randomly a match for a stranger then i would donate my bone marrow. To be on the register all the do is take anoterh tiny sample of blood when you give bloos, takes just a few extra seconds of 'giving blood' time once!

I'm on the register and when we were at uni my housemate was matched to donate.

This was 5 years ago and she went down to London (from Leicester) had a procedure under general anaestethic and had bone marrow withdrawn from her sternum (breast bone) and her hip IIRC

She didn't have to stay in hospital overnight and was home the same day. She was on painkillers for a constant dull ache for about 2 weeks and had a few problems afterwards with low iron levels (but we were vegetarian stugents who didn't eat vegetables!!!! So I'm sure we all had low iron levels - hers were the only ones being checked!)

Nowadays I believe (from the antony nolan newsletters) that there are 2 options for donating, the traditional one as detailed above and a newer method where they can withdraw bone marrow from the peripheral blood by using a continuous blood withdrawl and transfusion method over a couple of hours (does that make sence?) I think that the methd they use depends to some extent on the needs of the recipient??

I know that I had to come off the register for a year when I had my DD and obviously you can't donate when pregnant!

I used to recruit for antony nolan (many years ago) and my overwhelming memory is councelling people not to go on the register if they don't think they could go ahead with the donation procedure. So I'd say find out as much as you can about it and then go for it if you think its for you.

good info here

The peripheral blood thing is a stem cell harvest. The blood is drawn via a large catheter and, effectively, replaced with a transfusion which runs at the same time. With a stem cell harvest, the donor needs to be prepared with a drug regime first. The drugs encourage production of stem cells and at a certain point (when levels are high enough) the harvest will take place. This is done without the need for a general anaesthetic, but there are drugs to be taken (which obviously carry side effects) and you wouldnt need these with a regular bone marrow harvest.

As someone who has seen people go through these sorts of procedures (as recipients) it is a truly wonderful gift for them, as it can give them back their life, but it is not something to be entered into lightly as it an intense procedure.

Thanks everyone. Im seriously thinking about it, the only thing stopping me is i have a 2.9 ds and im a single parent with not much help from others. so if side affects were bad, or if i di have to stay in hospital overnight, he would suffer too.

i would really like to do it though

I was a bone marrow donor for my sister about 20 years ago. I had it under general anaesthetic and was a little bit sore for a few days (like a small bruise)and had to take iron supplements for a week. But it really wasn't bad at all, and that was 20 years ago!