In 2006, I found out that saxophonist Michael Brecker had leukemia and needed a bone marrow transplant. Well, I’m not the kind of person who donates money to causes, I’d rather take action myself. I’m in the States, so I signed up with the National Marrow Donor Program. (<http://www.marrow.org>)
I wasn’t a match for Michael, but a couple weeks ago I was matched with another leukemia patient. I’m now in the middle of filling out forms and traveling back and forth to Southern California for exams, blood donation, and ultimately, around the end of the month, I’ll go over for a couple days to actually donate bone marrow. Yes, that means I’ll be out of commission for a couple days, and yes, it will probably be painful, but I’ll heal up and regenerate my bone marrow in a couple weeks. I believe that life is precious and the earth is a beautiful place, and if I can help someone else so that they can stop suffering and live a bit longer, it will be worth it.
I hope some of you will consider becoming marrow and/or organ donors yourself…
I hope some of you will consider becoming marrow and/or organ donors yourself…
Awesome. Your post has got me thinking about this again; haven’t considered it for quite a while.
Hope you don’t mind, but I have a few questions…
So what is involved in donating?
Is it a major surgical procedure? I seem to recall that any open bone surgery was a pretty big deal. Of course, opening the bone in a controlled environment would certainly help.
How is the marrow extracted?
Is the procedure performed under general anaesthetic?
There are two possible procedures - for some situations, they take “peripheral blood stem cells” by hooking you up to an apheresis machine - this is sort of like the kidney dialysis process - they circulate your blood through a device that removes the needed cells and then returns the rest to your body. This is done as an outpatient procedure and you basically just sit in a chair for a little while with a tube in each arm.
Many times, they need actual bone marrow. While it is more serious than the apheresis process, I’m not sure I’d call it “major” surgery. About 3/4 of marrow donors are put under a general anesthetic and the rest use epidural or spinal anesthetic. You are placed on your stomach and two small incisions (~5mm) are made in your lower back, then needles are inserted through those incisions into the hip bone. Then they attach a bottle to the needle and collect the marrow. Once they’re done, they pull the needles out and bandage you up. Since the incisions are so small, they don’t need to put in stitches. Some people are back at work the next day, and others take up to a week to return. It doesn’t take long for the incisions to heal, and it takes 2-3 weeks to completely regenerate all your bone marrow…
It’s been a good inspiration for me to get back to regular meridian qigong practice too…
I’ve been doing various martial arts since the late 1970’s. About ten years ago I switched from the hard styles (Japanese, Okinawan, Korean) to the softer styles (Chinese). I studied Wu Style Taichi, then Chen Style, and then one day I found a book on Bagua Zhang. Imagine my surprise when it listed a teacher right here in Tucson! I actually started with him doing Xingyi Chuan instead of Bagua, but I think that was a good choice - the Xingyi system is simpler and emphasizes the fundamentals of internal strength. Once the school started bringing the Gao Style Bagua teachers over for training sessions, I started working with Bagua, and I haven’t done as much Xingyi since…
My teacher is also an OMD, specializing in acupuncture and cranio-sacral therapy, so as part of the school, we not only study the martial arts, but also the healing arts. Various forms of qigong are part of that whole process…
I’ve just done a bit of Karate, Jiujistu, and kick boxing. I really like the physicality of kick boxing training, and its easy to get started with. I have no interest in ring fighting though.
Chinese styles are really interesting though. I can’t really see myself taking the time to learn Chinese martial arts though.
Traditional kick boxing styles actually have a bit in common with the Gongfu, with a lot of rotary movements. That’s not something that I have really practiced though.
I am keen to try Brazillian Jiujitsu (ground fighting). I like grappling, and that style seems rather impressive.
I ve been an organ donor since age 18, not that i had that much to do except writing my signature here and there, then i moved out of Italy and things became more difficult, i remember that in Sweden i was not allowed to give my blood cause i was a foreigner.
Now i am more or less settled in Spain and, thanks to DW, i think i ll see if i can subscribe as an organ donor here.
I give blood regularly and am on the bone marrow doner lsit in the UK. I’m not sure what I feel about Organ donation though, something I need to spend some time thinking about.
sure, unless you find an idiot who will break you a vein, flood your arm with your own blood and make you look like if you were a junkie for a week.
At least they found your vein… one time when I donated blood, they tried five times in each arm. For some reason they don’t let you DIY even though I bet I could do a better job…
…they don’t let you DIY even though I bet I could do a better job…
Actually I have done that myself, in a hospital China. I had a practising nurse failing horribly. She protested somewhat when I wrested the needle tip from her, but I did indeed do a better job, getting the vein first time. When it was over, I didn’t wait for her to come back to remove the needle either, I just helped myself. The nurse was a bit upset, but I was none too impressed either.
Yaknow, I hate to be “that guy”, and I’ve been keeping this to myself, but fuckit…
Survival of the fittest? Overpopulation?
I’ll let you guys do the rest…
Ummmm, yeh…
It is an issue, I don’t know what we can do about it though, apart from populating the moon. I think it’s going to be a real problem in the not too distant future. What do you do when there’s not enough romm or resources for the growing population? Hopefully technology will come up with a solution to it, that way I don’t have to think about it too much. ???
