Bone Marrow Donor

Hello,

I am not sure how to begin, so I will just start.

 I am looking for good sources of information and practical advice from anyone who has it to share.   I am looking at the idea of becoming a potential bone marrow donor.   I have begun my search with this forum, and will continue from here.   I have a potential recipient in mind, and know that among other things, I will need to be tissue typed to this person and otherwise screened for health.  I am not related to the recipient, and I have a family with 2 young children.

 The kinds of information I'm looking for are:

What are the expected risks involved to a donor aside from reactions to general anesthesia?

 
Are there any special pre--surgery preparations (diet, medications,etc)?

Can I donate more than once? How often?

 
What is the recovery time?

Are there certain issues I might want to consider that I might not be thinking of?

At what stage is a recipient considered a bone marrow transplant candidate? 

I do not know the potential recipient very well, and am not sure how to approach them.   

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Yours sincerely--- 

To join the National Marrow Donor program Registry you need to be between 18 and 60, meet health guidelines and be willing to donate to any patient in need.  You can join on-line at www.marrow.org.  You will swab the inside of your mouth and return it to them and then be listed on the registry.  To donate to a specific person that is not a relative would be a long shot.  How do you know they need a BMT?  What kind of cancer and stage are they?  IF they did need a allogenic BMT then family would be the place to start as an HLA match is more likely.  If no family then the registries are searched for an unrelated donor.  Depending on the patient and the cancer an autologous transplant is possible where the patients own cells are used.  The goal would be to get the best HLA match possible.

On 7/2/2007 Storyseeker wrote:

Hello,

I am not sure how to begin, so I will just start.

 I am looking for good sources of information and practical advice from anyone who has it to share.   I am looking at the idea of becoming a potential bone marrow donor.   I have begun my search with this forum, and will continue from here.   I have a potential recipient in mind, and know that among other things, I will need to be tissue typed to this person and otherwise screened for health.  I am not related to the recipient, and I have a family with 2 young children.

 The kinds of information I'm looking for are:

What are the expected risks involved to a donor aside from reactions to general anesthesia?

Are there any special pre--surgery preparations (diet, medications,etc)?

 

Can I donate more than once? How often?

What is the recovery time?

 

Are there certain issues I might want to consider that I might not be thinking of?

 

At what stage is a recipient considered a bone marrow transplant candidate? 

 

I do not know the potential recipient very well, and am not sure how to approach them.   

 

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

Yours sincerely--- 

 

 

 

Hi,

I'm a little late in seeing your message. I am a patient at MD Anderson and was sent there for a transplant. My insurance did not cover it so I still haven't done it. I'm fortunate my cancer is chronic and I have time. I'm being pushed by my doctor to get my siblings tested...they are the best chances any one has for a match.

About the questions you asked...I'll share as much as I know. I have been told that they don't perform the actual transplants as they did before...but now they do the stem cell transplants. Its pretty much like giving blood, nothing more than that....you would have to take these injections I was told to build up ...ummmm protein if I remember correctly. Recovery time...is about very little to none...in a day or so you'll be totally back to normal. They do a procedure that takes blood from you and filters it and in turn returns it to your body...(they only use the stem cells from your blood and then returns the rest of the blood cells to you).

About giving your stem cells to this person...just say it...I have someone that lives in AZ and I live in LA and she wants to do it for me...of course its a very long shot...but hey...I look at it this way...she can for someone else if shes not a match for me! 

I think you can give more than once...check into the Bone Marrow Donator site...you'll get most your answers there.

I admire you for wanting to save this persons life...its a long shot...but please consider if your not a match to join the national registery...you may end up saving someone else...

God bless you