#nmdp

[knight-rider-fan-2000]

My bone marrow donation went really well!

My mom made the wonderful shirt for me to wear. Having Kitt near me helped me stay calm even when I wasn't feeling my best. A lot of people working at the hospital got a kick out of seeing my shirt too!!

[generic-sonic-fan]

whoag u said anyome can ask abt ur bone marrow donation, so here goes… first of all I fidn’t even KNOW you could DO that. Crazy stuff. Second… did it hurt? It hurt, right? I can’t imagine is NOT hurting. Oh lord. Also, how often can one donate bone marrow? Anyway hope ur doing good, this is really cool good for you congrats(idk what to say here uh) 👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍

Of course! My pleasure!!!

Donating bone marrow is really funky because bone marrow is what makes your immune system! Blood is made in The Bones, which feels wrong, but it's true. This includes your white blood cells and all of the other components that help you fight off infection. In individuals with blood cancers, often times their bone marrow IS the problem- it's creating mutated/cancerous blood cells.

So, your bone marrow is broken and producing cells that will kill you. And in response, humanity invented the most metal answer to this ever: nuking your bones until they're marrowless. And then taking someone else's bone marrow and swapping it in.

So basically, I just gave someone an entirely new immune system. Which is fucking awesome.

Answering your other questions beneath the cut so this doesn't get too long on everyone's dashboard!

The thing about bone marrow though is that it's really specific person-to-person; if the genetic markers in the bone marrow aren't an exact match, the bones will reject any attempt to swap out bone marrow.

Most people in the United States only have 2-3 people who are a genetic match for their bone marrow. Only 30% of people will have a match within their immediate family. Most patients find their match through a donor that isn't related to them! That was the case for my patient.

In college, inspired by a certain episode of the show Knight Rider (which was about bone marrow donation!), I joined the National Marrow Donor Project, otherwise known as NMDP or "Be the Match". NMDP is the organization that keeps the genetic database of all potential donors in the U.S., so that if a patient needs a bone marrow transplant, they can find a match! Joining the database registry is as simple as sending in a cheek swab by mail to NMDP. Furthermore, only 1% of people on the registry ever get the call that they're a match.

NMDP reached out to me in February to confirm that I was the match for a patient in need. After that, they walked me through the process of getting ready for a donation. There was a lot of lab testing- I had to do multiple blood draws and do a quick physical check-up to make sure I was in good health to do the donation. After that, NMDP paid for my airfare to the nearest apheresis hospital (more on what that is later), my hotel, and all my meals during the donation process. They also paid the way for a companion of my choice to join me and be there with me during the process.

To finally get around to answering your second question- yes, the process did hurt. There's two methods of donating bone marrow:

The method everyone thinks of, which is a surgery where you go under anesthesia and they pull bone marrow directly from your bones

The newer method, called Peripheral Blood Stem Cell (or PBSC)!

I underwent PBSC. To explain it in simple terms- doctors injected me with a medication that made my bones overproduce bone marrow! After five days of these injections, doctors are then able to hook me up to a special machine to take the extra bone marrow out of my blood and put it in a bag to then be put into my receiving patient. That's actually the bag I'm holding in my photo- that's all the extra bone marrow filtered out of my blood!

But because your bones are working overtime, it makes your bones hurt! Any current or former reddit users might get a chuckle out of this- they literally gave me the "bone hurting juice". It made my hips, my back, my ribs, and my skull ache. It wasn't pleasant. It felt a lot like cramping, and it gave me a gnarly headache, especially on days 4 and 5. But my personal NMDP coordinator walked me through how to keep myself healthy and as comfortable as possible, helping me with pain management, diet, etc. They were super helpful and made the process much more bearable.

As for the donation period itself- I showed up to the hospital, they laid me down in a bed, used an ultrasound to find the large veins in my arms, and put in two needles, one in each arm. These needles connected to the machine that my blood ran through to filter out my bone marrow. I know this sounds scary, but it really wasn't. If anything, this part was the most relaxing part of the whole process. I had a nurse who kept me warm and comfortable and I was in a quiet room with the lights dimmed. I honestly napped through the process. That sounds like bullshit, but I swear I'm telling you the truth.

Afterwards, I felt a little weak, but I was certainly moving on my own. The only pain I felt was the residual symptoms of the bone-hurting medication. This day was the worst day of the migraine for me, but the hotel that NMDP booked was super nice, so I could just rest for the day. The next day I flew home, and was already feeling much much better.

So that was my process! Sorry it turned into a bit of a long dump lol.

To answer your last question- most people only ever donate bone marrow once in their lives. It's possible I could make a second donation, but only if my matched patient needs an extra boost to their immune system if my first donation doesn't take hold as well as it should.

From the patient side of things, the whole process is much more harrowing. In the leadup to receiving my bone marrow, my patient will have had to undergo some of the most intense chemo/radiation therapy there is, in order to literally kill off all of their old faulty bone marrow. Then they have to stay in a perfectly sterile room, as they're without an immune system until they receive my replacement bone marrow.

I don't get to meet my patient until a year has passed. It's a safety thing on my patient's end- they need to make sure their new immune system is working properly -and to make sure we're both in the right headspace for such a meeting.

I hope my patient is doing okay. I hope that my immune system treats them well. Regardless of how it goes, I'm giving my patient a new chance at life, whereas before they were almost certainly going to die.

Thank you so much for asking about it. I hope that my story might inspire some of you to sign up for NMDP's donor registry. Every new person means a potential match for someone diagnosed with a blood cancer. I'd do this process again in a heartbeat.

[hornedcapybara]

Join the bone marrow donor registry! It's easy, free, and could save a life!

NMDP, formerly the National Marrow Donor Program/Be The Match, is a nonprofit that holds a registry of potential donors of healthy bone marrow and blood stem cells, matches donors to patients, and organizes and facilitates the donation.

Why is this important?

Every year thousands of people are diagnosed with blood cancers, and often the only hope is a donation of healthy bone marrow or blood stem cells. This requires a much closer match than a blood transfusion. 70% of patients will not have a match for donation in their family, and will need to find one on the registry. Depending on the patient's ethnic background they may have as little as a 29% chance of finding a donor who is a good enough match on the registry. The only way to improve these odds is for more people to sign up and increase the number of potential donors on the registry.

How do I sign up?

Signing up is easy! If you are between 18 and 40 years old, you can visit their website and sign up. They will send you a cheek swab kit in the mail, you swab your cheeks, send it back, and that's it! You're now on the registry, and if they ever find you're a potential match for any patients, they'll contact you. If you need to travel for your donation, they'll cover any related expenses, meals, and your time off work.

Donation FAQs

Need help deciding if donating bone marrow is right for you? Get answers to frequently asked questions about bone marrow donation and the co

Making this post because I completed a donation last year, and started volunteering with them in my area. So if any of you have any questions about the donation process or anything else, feel free to reply or DM me! If you're interested in helping in other ways, you can find information about donating money or volunteering your time on their website.

[doessportanimecountasexercise]

Join the Registry | NMDP (Formerly Be The Match)

Join the registry to donate bone marrow, peripheral blood stem cells or cord blood & help save a life. NMDP maintains the most diverse regis

Hello everyone!

Very recently a good friend of mine has become very sick and will likely need a bone marrow transplant. Please join me in joining the NMDP's registry to donate either peripheral blood stem cells or bone marrow!

It's super easy to fill out an online form and they'll send you cheek swabs to mail back and test to see what genetic markers you have! Optimal donors are between the ages of 18-35. There is no cost to donate!

If you're not able to join the registry, please help me spread the word! Let's help someone have a second chance at life!

Thank you!!!!

[generic-sonic-fan]

Despite everything, despite his complex feelings and despite his misgivings, I think Shadow the Hedgehog would make infrequent blood or bone marrow donations. He'd need to find a trustworthy nonprofit organization to partner with, and I imagine he'd vet them thoroughly and personally.

Maybe it's a bit of a torture of his own creation within his own specific circumstances- but maybe the least overwhelming part of any medical trauma he might have is the part where he gets to help another person, rather than just medical testing for the sake of it.

And of course, he thinks of every receiving patient as Maria. It's just the way he's wired. Love persisting and all that.

Anyways, as you might have guessed from this and my prior few posts, I'm a few days out from donating my own bone marrow to an anonymous patient.

Even if some of my feelings are complicated (and some parts of the process a little painful), I'm very excited for the chance to be able to help someone like this. A lot of my emotions are because I care so much. I've been thinking constantly about my chronically ill sister during this process. What she suffers from can't be fixed by a donation from me, but I wish it could be. I think that's bothering me more than the little bit of soreness I'm having to deal with.

The idea that I could be giving the same hope that I wish I could give my sister is. . . a very positive one, if overwhelming.

It's my hope that everyone who's medically able can sign up for the National Marrow Donor Program- NMDP for short. They're a wonderful organization who's been taking care of me every step of the way. Each person in the United States only has 1-3 matches for a potential Bone Marrow donation. Every extra person in the registry counts for those people out there that are fighting bone diseases and blood cancers.

[knight-rider-fan-2000]

A Race For Life - and how YOU can save someone like Michael and Kitt

Do you all remember episode 16 of season 2 of Knight Rider (1982)?

Do you remember how Michael fought to save a sick little girl? The girl needed a bone marrow donation, and there was only one match in the country that could give it to her- so Michael tracked him down and persuaded him to donate?

Turns out that Bone Marrow donation really works like that in real life! If you live in the U.S. and you needed bone marrow to save your life, there would only be 2-3 people with compatible enough marrow for the transfer. Most of the time, these people won't even be in your family.

After seeing "Race For Life", I signed up to be a bone marrow donor. All it took was a simple cheek swab.

And now, I'm going to help save someone's life.

My bone marrow was found, through the registry, to be compatible with a patient who has blood cancer. I'll get to donate my bone marrow to replace their mutated bone marrow, giving them a strong chance to be cancer-free.

The National Marrow Donor Program, or NMDP, is the organization that keeps track of potential bone marrow donors in the U.S. If you live in the U.S., you can join this registry to have the chance to be someone's match.

I cannot begin to express how privileged I feel to be able to give someone a second chance at life like this. It literally feels like something out of a Knight Rider episode and I couldn't be happier.

I would encourage everyone who sees this post to sign up to be a part of the donor registry. I'm not going to put a link in this post, because Tumblr tends to block posts with links from the main search, and I want as many people as possible to see this; but it's as easy as googling "NDMP" and going to their home website. If you aren't in the U.S. but still wish to join, I know there's many international organizations, and I hope you can find the one that services your country.

I can't believe that watching Knight Rider is responsible for me being able to save a life. I want to give Michael and Kitt big hugs and thank them for inspiring me to spend 10 minutes on a rainy day to sign up to be a donor.

[bisexualhunterbiden]

🌻

I've been struggling a lot with depression lately, and just like, general feelings of hopelessness and rage. In response to that, I've been kind of throwing myself randomly at any opportunity to do something good, from donating some of my bulk household products to charities to showing up at local Dem events to feeding stray cats.

One thing I randomly decided to do was to join the National Marrow Donor Program (formerly known as Be The Match). They send you a little cheek swab kit, and you send it back and it's tested and then you're on the registry for people in need of bone marrow transplants. And the cool thing is that now the marrow donation process is basically like donating plasma. You get your blood drawn, marrow is extracted, and then it gets put back in you via the other arm. You just sit there and watch a movie or two and you're done. That's it. That's all it takes to save someone's life.

If you would also like to join, here's the link:

And if you want to see the video that really pushed me to start this process (& if you also want to cry a little) then here it is:

View this post on Instagram

Send me a 🌻 and I'll respond with some random bullshit

[everydaydeeds]

Day 4417 - Renewed my status in the bone marrow donor registry.