Giving My Marrow

http://getswabbed.com

Bone marrow is the spongy part of some of your bones that contains stem cells.  Stem cells are basically starter cells - they can transform into any cell in your body.  Hence the science community's push for legislation that allows for harvesting said cells. 

Specifically, the bone marrow stem cells can be made into new blood cells.  The new blood cells can save the lives of patients suffering from blood cancers like leukemia, lymphoma and myeloma. A bone marrow transplant saved my boyfriend's father's life a few years ago, when he was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, an aggressive and highly fatal form of blood cancer.  He's now been cancer-free for over two years.

Today, I decided to join the National Bone Marrow Donor Registry (Be The Match Registry).  There are several campaigns urging people to give, but little information about the process is publicly known.  After reading this article in Marie Claire, I decided to just do it.  According to the article, the author joined the registry at a marrow drive.  She swabbed her inner cheek w/ a Q-Tip, and then went on her way.  A little while later, she was contacted and a package was sent to her.  She was a potential match for an 8-year old girl with leukemia. After committing to the donation, the process involved laying off of aspirin and alcohol for a couple of weeks and taking a med that increased her body's production of white blood cells.  On the day of the harvest, she spent a couple of hours at the hospital, then took a nap and was back to normal.  And the little girl lived.   The little girl beat cancer.

Wow.  I signed up online.  Since you can't swab your cheek online, they'll be sending me the at-home swab kit.  I'll need to send that back and then, just wait.  I'll be on the donor list until I'm 61 - for more than thirty years.  It's possibly that in that time, no one will match my genetics, but it's also possible that someone will.   And I hope to be able to save someone's life one day.