7 ms·

I want to raise awareness that you don't have donate an organ to save lives. Blood cancer patients all over the world are frantically looking for bone marrow an

by nom 9y ago

I want to raise awareness that you don't have donate an organ to save lives. Blood cancer patients all over the world are frantically looking for bone marrow and blood cell donors. The chances for a match are very low, but if they find one the chances of success are high. So you can understand the desperation. The thing is, an actual bone marrow extraction is only required in 10% of all cases, most of the time you only have to donate blood cells. It's painless and pretty much non-intrusive. Check out https://www.dkms.de/en https://www.dkms.de/en or https://bethematch.org/ https://bethematch.org/ for more information about the subject. Costs for the match test are unfortunately not covered by health insurance here in Germany, but it's only 30€ or something in that order. If you ever wanted to save a life, get tested.

tobz 9y ago
Can confirm: this is an incredibly low-barrier-to-entry thing. I'm a U.S. citizen, so I signed up with Be The Match. Four cheek swabs that they send you in the mail. Swab your cheeks, package them up, send them back. I got notified that I was a preliminary match just five months after signing up. Sadly, I wasn't a full match (hopefully someone else was!) after going through the blood draw. All in all, it cost me nothing monetarily and maybe 3 hours total between questionnaires and the blood draw when I got matched.
- treehau5 9y ago
  I only worry about the drugs they have you take prior to increase your blood cell production
  - nom 9y ago
    Why? Others are donating a whole kidney or parts of their liver etc, which is much riskier. Compared to that, taking some drugs for short time to increase blood cell production sounds tame. I'd rather worry about the bone marrow donation. Once you sign up, you potentially have to give bone marrow or have to live with the fact that you could've saved someones life, but didn't.
xadhominemx 9y ago
Jumping in here - I donated peripheral blood stem cells (PBSC) a couple years ago and the process was easy and incredibly rewarding. I encourage all to participate, especially if you have non-European or mixed ancestry!
- geoka9 9y ago
  > especially if you have non-European or mixed ancestry! I'm curious, how does it matter?
  - xadhominemx 9y ago
    https://bethematch.org/transplant-basics/matching-patients-with-donors/how-does-a-patients-ethnic-background-affect-matching/ https://bethematch.org/transplant-basics/matching-patients-w... Recipients are more likely to match with donors of similar ethnic backgrounds. Today, Black, Hispanic, Asian, and American Indian patients are far less likely to find a match in the registry than White patients.
biscuitt 9y ago
Yup, the test is extremely easy too. Just requires a simple swab on the inside of the cheek. I know there are a decent amount of donor drives that you can find through the website that will add you to their registry Shameless Plug: The football coach at the college I went to actually has a charity dedicated to getting more people to take the test and I think is associated with the Be The Match organization. One of his players (who now happens to be an outfielder for the Chicago Cubs http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseball/cubs/ct-matt-szczur-bone-marrow-donor-spt-0929-20160928-story.html http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseball/cubs/ct-matt-s... ) ended up being a match and ended up missing a good chunk of the baseball season even though he was expected to be drafted by a Major league team that year. Pretty cool story
patrickread 9y ago
My dad's life was saved 10 years ago via a bone marrow transplant from an English woman. He was being treated for Leukemia. Thanks for promoting this cause!
nommm-nommm 9y ago
If you are affiliated with the US DoD ("A member of the U.S. military, Reserve, Coast Guard, National Guard; military dependent; or DoD civilian employee") you need to sign up with https://www.salutetolife.org https://www.salutetolife.org instead.
cowpewter 9y ago
Do you know if they ever reject donors due to health issues? I've been rejected for blood donation before because some blood centers consider fibromyalgia an auto-immune condition. I couldn't find anything about it in the donor faq though.
- anamexis 9y ago
  They have a medical requirements page: https://bethematch.org/support-the-cause/donate-bone-marrow/join-the-marrow-registry/medical-guidelines/ https://bethematch.org/support-the-cause/donate-bone-marrow/... It looks like fibromyalgia does make you ineligible.
  - DougN7 9y ago
    So you can donate bone marrow, even if you can't donate blood because of possibly being a mad cow carrier?
- nom 9y ago
  They also won't accept you as a donor if you have any kind of auto-immune disease (because we still don't know how it works and if it can be transfered via blood cells or marrow), and generally, your body has to be in good shape. I thought about donating but my doctor discouraged me and advised me to take it serious, e.g. don't lie while filling out the donation forms. Even though it probably would turn out fine someone could die because of you which is exactly the opposite of what you've signed up for.
Viper007Bond 9y ago
I'm literally getting a bone marrow transplant today to treat leukemia. I'm in the US and my donor is somewhere in Europe. I can't thank these donation networks enough -- they are saving my life.
- origami777 9y ago
  Good luck! I hope everything goes well
jyriand 9y ago
I would love to donate blood, but it seems I'm too sensitive to blood. Not sure why. But there have been cases where I have passed out after giving blood tests or cutting myself. Would love to hear ideas how to overcome this.
- chimen 9y ago
  I donated a lot when my father died. Just make sure you're not looking at the bag filling with your blood. We're programmed to think that our life is dripping out through that cord but be positive and aware that this helps someone and also regenerates your blood so it has its benefits. Don't look and prepare mentally that you're not going to die there. I know it sounds absurd but the "fight or flight" situation kicks in and, like with panic attacks, the fear of actually dying probably leads you to pass out probably.
  - omarchowdhury 9y ago
    I'm not sure that's really a fight or flight response since passing out would leave one extremely vulnerable to harm from predators, the environment.
    - chimen 9y ago
      You never had a panic attack. When the brain overloads in such situation will take the most extreme action it can, shut you down, put you to sleep so you can't feel anything probably. It won't happen to everyone but it does to many. I've had some panic attacks 5 years ago that got me close to that point. I didn't pass out but I was right there, in all instances I ended up in the ER though. I have a friend who's girlfriend was driving one day and the car slipped off the road going towards an electrical pillar (it didn't hit it though because my friend managed to grab the wheel). Near the collision point with that pillar his girlfriend passed out, in an instant. We laughed at that situation for years. They ended up in someone's yard, killing a poor dog in his little house.
- nom 9y ago
  That's called Vasovagal Syncope [0]. It doesn't necessarily happen because you see your own blood in a bag, but rather because of the physical implications of having blood removed from your body. Drawing slower or smaller volumes can potentially help mitigating this problem. I think it can also be seen as an indicator for other medical problems regarding your circulatory system, so it might be worth investigating further. 0: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasovagal_syncope https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasovagal_syncope
callumprentice 9y ago
I live in the US now but was born in the UK and lived there until I was almost 30. Each time I tried to give blood here in CA, I was told I was ineligible because of the possibility I was a carrier for "Mad Cow Disease". Anyone know if that's still the case or if there is a way to get tests and cleared for donations?
- deleted_soon 9y ago
  I believe you can't ever get cleared. The only way to confirm mad cow is to dissect the brain, so obviously it can't be tested for in a living person. As a result, anyone with over a certain amount of risk for mad cow can never be allowed to donate.
  - waqf 9y ago
    You can still donate (blood, at least) for research purposes, if you can find someone who's collecting it. Bonus, you get $50–100 instead of a cookie!
  - gertef 9y ago
    If I had leukemia, I'd love some possibly-mad-cow-tainted blood/marrow from an otherwise healthy donor.
    - walshemj 9y ago
      :-) I am the UK kidney transplant list last year I turned down a potential kidney as there was a risk that the donor was potentialy HIV+ The surgeons second line was "don't worry we have really good drugs for HIV these days" In the end we agreed that given my age and I then had fairly good function left that letting some on else have it was for the best
- fangsout 9y ago
  I lived in Germany in the mid 80s (military brat) and I also have always been told that I can't donate because of that.
- 9y ago
munificent 9y ago
Thank you for the reminder. I signed up. The day after the House passed the awful AHCA, it's nice to feel I am doing something to potentially improve the health of another.
mathattack 9y ago
Giving blood is the easiest way in the world to invest in the karma bank account. One of the easiest ways out there to save lives.
jmcdiesel 9y ago
The problem with blood donation, for me, is the time between donation. I donate plasma twice a week, i have for years now. 880mL of plasma every donation... Whereas blood you have to wait 8 weeks between... Not saying blood is less important, just important to understand there are options... all of it is important, and i think everyone should be donating something in their body like blood/plasma that is renewable and costs your body next to nothing to give...
jdietrich 9y ago
Registering as a bone marrow donor is particularly valuable if you're mixed race. Bone marrow transplants require a very high degree of genetic similarity, so it can be very difficult to find matches for mixed race recipients. http://content.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1993074,00.html http://content.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1993074,0...
97s 9y ago
My life was saved by bethematch donor. Who ever you are anonymous donor, I thank thee. My entire family and all our friends signed up once they realized how easy it was. Do it.

by nom 9y ago

tobz 9y ago

Can confirm: this is an incredibly low-barrier-to-entry thing. I'm a U.S. citizen, so I signed up with Be The Match. Four cheek swabs that they send you in the mail. Swab your cheeks, package them up, send them back. I got notified that I was a preliminary match just five months after signing up. Sadly, I wasn't a full match (hopefully someone else was!) after going through the blood draw. All in all, it cost me nothing monetarily and maybe 3 hours total between questionnaires and the blood draw when I got matched.

treehau5 9y ago
I only worry about the drugs they have you take prior to increase your blood cell production
- nom 9y ago
  Why? Others are donating a whole kidney or parts of their liver etc, which is much riskier. Compared to that, taking some drugs for short time to increase blood cell production sounds tame. I'd rather worry about the bone marrow donation. Once you sign up, you potentially have to give bone marrow or have to live with the fact that you could've saved someones life, but didn't.

xadhominemx 9y ago

Jumping in here - I donated peripheral blood stem cells (PBSC) a couple years ago and the process was easy and incredibly rewarding. I encourage all to participate, especially if you have non-European or mixed ancestry!

geoka9 9y ago
> especially if you have non-European or mixed ancestry! I'm curious, how does it matter?
- xadhominemx 9y ago
  https://bethematch.org/transplant-basics/matching-patients-with-donors/how-does-a-patients-ethnic-background-affect-matching/ https://bethematch.org/transplant-basics/matching-patients-w... Recipients are more likely to match with donors of similar ethnic backgrounds. Today, Black, Hispanic, Asian, and American Indian patients are far less likely to find a match in the registry than White patients.

biscuitt 9y ago

Yup, the test is extremely easy too. Just requires a simple swab on the inside of the cheek. I know there are a decent amount of donor drives that you can find through the website that will add you to their registry Shameless Plug: The football coach at the college I went to actually has a charity dedicated to getting more people to take the test and I think is associated with the Be The Match organization. One of his players (who now happens to be an outfielder for the Chicago Cubs http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseball/cubs/ct-matt-szczur-bone-marrow-donor-spt-0929-20160928-story.html http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseball/cubs/ct-matt-s... ) ended up being a match and ended up missing a good chunk of the baseball season even though he was expected to be drafted by a Major league team that year. Pretty cool story

patrickread 9y ago

My dad's life was saved 10 years ago via a bone marrow transplant from an English woman. He was being treated for Leukemia. Thanks for promoting this cause!

nommm-nommm 9y ago

If you are affiliated with the US DoD ("A member of the U.S. military, Reserve, Coast Guard, National Guard; military dependent; or DoD civilian employee") you need to sign up with https://www.salutetolife.org https://www.salutetolife.org instead.

cowpewter 9y ago

Do you know if they ever reject donors due to health issues? I've been rejected for blood donation before because some blood centers consider fibromyalgia an auto-immune condition. I couldn't find anything about it in the donor faq though.

anamexis 9y ago
They have a medical requirements page: https://bethematch.org/support-the-cause/donate-bone-marrow/join-the-marrow-registry/medical-guidelines/ https://bethematch.org/support-the-cause/donate-bone-marrow/... It looks like fibromyalgia does make you ineligible.
- DougN7 9y ago
  So you can donate bone marrow, even if you can't donate blood because of possibly being a mad cow carrier?
nom 9y ago
They also won't accept you as a donor if you have any kind of auto-immune disease (because we still don't know how it works and if it can be transfered via blood cells or marrow), and generally, your body has to be in good shape. I thought about donating but my doctor discouraged me and advised me to take it serious, e.g. don't lie while filling out the donation forms. Even though it probably would turn out fine someone could die because of you which is exactly the opposite of what you've signed up for.

Viper007Bond 9y ago

I'm literally getting a bone marrow transplant today to treat leukemia. I'm in the US and my donor is somewhere in Europe. I can't thank these donation networks enough -- they are saving my life.

origami777 9y ago
Good luck! I hope everything goes well

jyriand 9y ago

I would love to donate blood, but it seems I'm too sensitive to blood. Not sure why. But there have been cases where I have passed out after giving blood tests or cutting myself. Would love to hear ideas how to overcome this.

chimen 9y ago
I donated a lot when my father died. Just make sure you're not looking at the bag filling with your blood. We're programmed to think that our life is dripping out through that cord but be positive and aware that this helps someone and also regenerates your blood so it has its benefits. Don't look and prepare mentally that you're not going to die there. I know it sounds absurd but the "fight or flight" situation kicks in and, like with panic attacks, the fear of actually dying probably leads you to pass out probably.
- omarchowdhury 9y ago
  I'm not sure that's really a fight or flight response since passing out would leave one extremely vulnerable to harm from predators, the environment.
  - chimen 9y ago
    You never had a panic attack. When the brain overloads in such situation will take the most extreme action it can, shut you down, put you to sleep so you can't feel anything probably. It won't happen to everyone but it does to many. I've had some panic attacks 5 years ago that got me close to that point. I didn't pass out but I was right there, in all instances I ended up in the ER though. I have a friend who's girlfriend was driving one day and the car slipped off the road going towards an electrical pillar (it didn't hit it though because my friend managed to grab the wheel). Near the collision point with that pillar his girlfriend passed out, in an instant. We laughed at that situation for years. They ended up in someone's yard, killing a poor dog in his little house.
nom 9y ago
That's called Vasovagal Syncope [0]. It doesn't necessarily happen because you see your own blood in a bag, but rather because of the physical implications of having blood removed from your body. Drawing slower or smaller volumes can potentially help mitigating this problem. I think it can also be seen as an indicator for other medical problems regarding your circulatory system, so it might be worth investigating further. 0: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasovagal_syncope https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasovagal_syncope

callumprentice 9y ago

I live in the US now but was born in the UK and lived there until I was almost 30. Each time I tried to give blood here in CA, I was told I was ineligible because of the possibility I was a carrier for "Mad Cow Disease". Anyone know if that's still the case or if there is a way to get tests and cleared for donations?

deleted_soon 9y ago
I believe you can't ever get cleared. The only way to confirm mad cow is to dissect the brain, so obviously it can't be tested for in a living person. As a result, anyone with over a certain amount of risk for mad cow can never be allowed to donate.
- waqf 9y ago
  You can still donate (blood, at least) for research purposes, if you can find someone who's collecting it. Bonus, you get $50–100 instead of a cookie!
- gertef 9y ago
  If I had leukemia, I'd love some possibly-mad-cow-tainted blood/marrow from an otherwise healthy donor.
  - walshemj 9y ago
    :-) I am the UK kidney transplant list last year I turned down a potential kidney as there was a risk that the donor was potentialy HIV+ The surgeons second line was "don't worry we have really good drugs for HIV these days" In the end we agreed that given my age and I then had fairly good function left that letting some on else have it was for the best
fangsout 9y ago
I lived in Germany in the mid 80s (military brat) and I also have always been told that I can't donate because of that.
9y ago

munificent 9y ago

Thank you for the reminder. I signed up. The day after the House passed the awful AHCA, it's nice to feel I am doing something to potentially improve the health of another.

mathattack 9y ago

Giving blood is the easiest way in the world to invest in the karma bank account. One of the easiest ways out there to save lives.

jmcdiesel 9y ago

The problem with blood donation, for me, is the time between donation. I donate plasma twice a week, i have for years now. 880mL of plasma every donation... Whereas blood you have to wait 8 weeks between... Not saying blood is less important, just important to understand there are options... all of it is important, and i think everyone should be donating something in their body like blood/plasma that is renewable and costs your body next to nothing to give...

jdietrich 9y ago

Registering as a bone marrow donor is particularly valuable if you're mixed race. Bone marrow transplants require a very high degree of genetic similarity, so it can be very difficult to find matches for mixed race recipients. http://content.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1993074,00.html http://content.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1993074,0...

97s 9y ago

My life was saved by bethematch donor. Who ever you are anonymous donor, I thank thee. My entire family and all our friends signed up once they realized how easy it was. Do it.