become a bone marrow donor

I found out about bone marrow donation and the need for more awareness and registrations from minorities after a co-worker posted a link to the Asian American Donor Program. I’m mixed race Hispanic, and after reading the staggering statistics of the likelihood of an ethnic minority finding a match in the national registry, I had to join!

Some of the most interesting things I learned:

There are TWO ways of actually giving your adult stem cells – 30% of the time, you are asked to give stem cells through your bone marrow. 70% of the time, you are asked to give stem cells through your blood.

There’s a 35-45 percent chance of finding a donor in the current registry if you’re an ethnic minority. If you’re Caucasian, you have about an 80 to 85 percent chance of finding a donor

Marrow donation is done under general or local anesthetic, so you don’t feel the needles going in to your hip bone. In the case of stem cell donation, the process is more like dialysis with no anesthetic at all.

I’m personally a total scaredy cat when it comes to needles and blood, and I’ve been known to pass out seeing my own blood. However, the chances of a match are so slim that if I did match someone, I couldn’t imagine choosing not to donate!

As a side affect of reading more about how I can help with marrow/stem cell donation, I’m also gathering the courage to donate blood for the first time in my life (see previous note about passing out…).

I’m allowed to donate blood will be the end of march so I guess I’ll ask the nurses there for some general information….I hear there is a new procedure which isn’t as painful as the old one. But to be honest it’s more painful losing a family member…. so if i can spare a family that pain its all good :)

I am looking forward to getting my kit and hopefully become a donar to save a life.

I have found a donor drive in my area for September, so with just a little luck I can move this over to the done list.

I’ve been looking into it, waiting to get the go-ahead from my fiancee heh.

I finally signed up with onematch.com and toke the swabs so hopefully I will someday be able to help someone. It makes me feel really good to know that one day I will be able to save a life. I have been told that the procedure is painful but isnt losing some close to you more painful? I can endure as much pain as necessary in order to prevent a family from losing someone they love.

I only have 16 days to accomplish this in 2007, I have checked for donor locations in New York, but there are none that are really nearby. I may need more time

I have had this for a while, I am lucky I gave myself till the end of the year to finish it. There are not alot of marrow drives that I can go to.

I will check this as done though.

I went to blood donors on Monday and ended up completely forgetting to do this. That’s what happens when you get invoved in other things (the story covering to those other things is on my give blood list).

I’ve changed my reminder frequency to (hopefully) remind me just before my next donor session on January 28.

of donors since my Sophomore year of college. Then I moved around and apparently, they found me. I still get their quarterly newsletter. I hope I get an opportunity to give one day.