Hi, Elianadonor
I just donated by my bone marrow to stranger who I don't know via Be The Match Registry on Sept 3, 2014 via bone marrow surgery. I can answer almost all of your questions. I was on the registry for 2.5 years before I was contacted. I registered to be on the registry b/c I had a friend who had leukemia, and her best friend got many of us on the registery to see we were a match for her. Unfortunately, my friend had an international match who had infectious disease, and she subsequently had a cord blood transplant instead of a bone marrow transplant. She died 6 months later. I had never intended to be on the registry to match a stranger, and I did not know the details of bone marrow donation when I signed up, but God had plans for me. I was I'm told that I was a perfect match for this stranger... 6 out of 6, and 10 out of 10 in the HLA matches. I am petite in size, but has excellent hemoglobin level b/c I live in high altitude. I am in excellent health. I had to travel out of town for the donation b/c my town hospital did not offer this. I was given 3 different city locations, and I opted for a differenct hospital than the 3 that were offered to me, after doing some research on the hospitals. I was flown twice out of town in preparation for the donation procedure. The third time I was flown, I did the bone marrow surgery. I was given the choice of either doing the bone marrow surgery or the Peripheral stem cell collection. After much research, and deliberation, I opt for bone marrow surgery. I am in recovering at home now. I am also very petite... for donating to the stranger, who is much bigger than me. I can tell you that I was pretty nervous about doing this procedure. The idea of putting myself into elective surgery, have anticipated pain, and how it would disrupt my life in juggling job, kids and family life, did not appeal to me. But the idea of someone may die b/c I responded "no" was even more unappealing to me. I had general anesthesia, and the collection site is from the lower back area, pelvic bone. They made 5 puncture sites that require no stitches. The entire procedure lasted about 1 hour. The day of the surgery was bad for me, b/c I reacted badly with nausea and vomiting to the anethesia. I had to stay overnight b/c my blood pressure was too low. The bone marrow was processed, and delivered via a courier with a ice box, and had to be flown to the recipient within 24 hours, for the cells to be viable. I've been home for 4 days. The post operative pain has been very minimal, although I am tired. I was told that I will have pain, was had been sent home with vicadin as pain med. So far, I haven't need to take any pain med. I think that it was a miracle!! I had excellent care at the hospital. I am sore, but not terrible. I can't exercise and work out like I used to, but I will be able to get back into the routine in 3 weeks. If you want more details, and have more questions, please contact me. If you want to contact me privately, please look me up. It was quite an adventure... something that I will never forget.
Topic: Marrow Donation Questions Galore (Read 4585 times)