what would you do to save a strangers life?

[Stripersteve]

just curious, yesterday I found out I was a perfect match for a 54 year old male that needs a bone marrow transplant. The girl from Dana Farber Cancer Hospital asked me if I was willing to proceed with being a bone marrow donor. I told her I may be crazy but how could I not go forward with being a donor, knowing that it has the potential to save someone's life. I go for my intensive physical on Oct 3rd, if everything checks out on Oct 19-20th I donate my bone marrow.

[scottymack]

hope it all works out, for you both, your a good person.
good luck.

[JoeSixpack]

I hope everything works out for the best for both of you.

[linesider]

god bless you

[Ed White]

Ya know.....I knew there had to be some reason I liked you.

It sure wasn't your fishing ability, or choice of drivers

It's a good thing your doing, all the best to the donor and the donee.

Ed

[sadlsorz]

Steve, being a person that has lost his 23 year old sister, grandfather, grandmother, aunt, father in law, and now as we speak my mom to cancer, I'd say you are a saint. God bless my friend.

[Stripersteve]

thanks guys, hopefully it will be the less painful of the options. The thought of them sticking a big needle into my pelvis and taking a liter and a half of marrow doesn't excite me that much.......

hey Ed I see my guy is now second in points

[Ed White]

Originally Posted by Stripersteve

hey Ed I see my guy is now second in points

Yeah, well, my guy is in there, uh, somewhere.....

Enjoy it while it lasts, the Junior express is just gettin' warmed up.

Ed

[merrillizer]

Stevie, thats a very honorable thing to do Good luck with it. And remembah, no drinkin Satahdee

[TonyDB]

That is a really great thing for you to do Steve. Do you know whether you'll be given full anesthesia or a spinal block?

[Stripersteve]

don't know yet, hopefully I get the option that means having a shot for 5 days in a row to boost the stem cells in my blood then 2 days of 6 hours each of them running my blood through a machine collecting stem cells. That is the method they use 80% of the time now

[TonyDB]

Ah, OK. I believe the proceedure you're having is called a peripheral blood stem cell harvest. This approach differs from bone marrow transplant.

Those shots/injections previous to having the proceedure are to boost your white blood cell count. In doing so, this forces stem cells out of the marrow into the blood. So basically you'll have two IV needles, one in each arm. The blood comes out of one arm, goes into a device that seperates the stem cells from the rest of the blood (harvests), and then goes back into your other arm.

It's really a much safer proceedure as there is no anesthetic required and it's no where near as invasive as poking mutiple holes into your plevic region.

You might want to find out how many stem cells they plan to harvest. If the guy you're donating them to is a big person, it will probably be in excess of 5 million/Kg.

[Stripersteve]

I should be learing more about exactly what they want to do on the 3rd. Thats when they give me a physical to make sure they're not gonna do me in while doing this. Tony you seem to know quite a bit about this yes a Peripheral Stem Cell Donation it what they call it.

[TonyDB]

I had an aunt back in the late 80's who eventually sucumbed to cancer. Back then, marrow transplant was a relatively new procedure without a data bank of donors to screen against. I was tested, along with other family members, as a potential donor and I've sort of stayed in touch with the advancement in procedures since then. I remember having mixed emotions when I was told I wasn't a match.

[jbrotz24]

That is a very honorable thing you are doing Steve. You are truely a great person. I can't imagine what the world would be like without people like you. God bless you both.