(no subject)

[arethinn]

"4. 2006 Classified Senate Blood and Marrow Drive
There was discussion in favor of holding another blood & marrow drive this year, ..."

Med techs, help me out here. How do you have a "Marrow Drive"? I mean, how does one donate bone marrow without serious surgery, such that they can have an on-campus "drive" for it like a blood drive? Or is it just getting your name in some kind of database along with some other kind of sample that might be used to match you up to someone who needed bone marrow?

Comments

[ex-casteylan314.livejournal.com]

I suspect it's getting people to sign up to a register. There's a nationl charity in the UK called the Anthony Nolan Trust (http://www.anthonynolan.org.uk/) that organises it all for this country; maybe there's something similar over there.

[michiexile]

Can't you donate marrow substance by simply having a very painful needle inserted in the short of your back? I know I had my marrow tested at some point by that...

[arethinn]

Sounds like what ahril said in her comment, but that sounds to me like a procedure that should be done at least in a doctor's office if not a hospital, and certainly not in the student council chambers, which is why I was asking.

I try to avoid getting very painful needles stuck in me whenever possible. I'm a wimp so I never even donate blood, even though I know I really should.

[ahril.livejournal.com]

The way I've always understood it is that you get your name put in a database of potential donors along with certain info they need for matching. if you are determined to be a match for someone who needs a transplant, very likely a Leukemia patient, further testing will then be done, usually a simple blood test.

If you are a match, then a rather large bore needle is inserted either into your hip or your sternum under local anesthetic and the marrow is sucked out that way and given to the recipient via IV.

But I'm no med tech, so take that with a grain of salt.

[arethinn]

a rather large bore needle is inserted either into your hip or your sternum under local anesthetic and the marrow is sucked out that way and given to the recipient via IV.

Le OW. Le EW.

Not a needles person, you see. I have to look away when I so much as get a TB test. I get faint and queasy when I have blood drawn for a test, never mind donating. Eek.