Bone marrow donation
I’ve applied to the unrelated bone marrow donor registry. I’ll be having my blood drawn for marrow typing in the next few weeks.
People seem surprised, which I find surprising. Let’s take a look at some info:
- There are “more than 215,000″ donors, but only around 800 (or 0.37% of 215,000) have ever donated. Bear in mind that one number is the current number of registerees and the other is the total number of those who have actually donated.
- The harvest is done under general anaesthesia. You wake up with very sore hip bones and some nausea from anaesthesia.
- The harvest is an outpatient procedure. That is, you go home the same day.
This seems like small peas compared to saving or extending someone’s life. Does that make me crazy?