Betty's Blog: Be the Match

(I wrote the first part of this the night before I was to donate but our internet connection wasn't very good so I finished it tonight 48 hours after donation) Last July while I was visiting with my mom in Tennessee, I got a phone call from the Bone Marrow Center. I was a match! Wow! That was quite exciting! A match for what you say? Well, my cheek swab showed that I matched a 50 year old man suffering from a form of leukemia who needs a bone marrow transplant to save his life. Wow - again! I cannot imagine my ever having the opportunity to save a person's life - what an honor! How did I get on this registry to be matched to begin with? That happened about 4 years ago when Brad was skipper of VRC-40. He arranged a bone marrow drive in the squadron - giving his sailors special liberty for anyone who signed up on the registry. So, our whole family went in and registered too. It was so easy, the flight surgeon just swabbed my cheek with a cotton swab and I filled out a health questionnaire. That was it - until last July.

Tonight I find myself sitting in Washington DC getting ready to donate bone marrow tomorrow. Most people think that they put you out and put a needle in your hip - not so! Although there are some bone marrow donations that still use that method, the method that is being used with me is called PBSC or peripheral blood circulating cell donation. I started on Saturday the 31st getting a shot of Filgrastim in each arm. I did that for 4 days and on the 5th day (Wednesday, Nov 4th) I got my last two shots and then they hooked me up to an aphresis machine. This machine moved 18 liters of blood out one arm into the machine where it separated the bone marrow cells and also some plasma and then pumped the blood back into my arm. I was very blessed and had very few side effects. The shots can give some pretty miserable side effects but I mainly was very fatigued and a bit of bone pain in my arms, back and sternum but nothing that Extra Strength Tylenol couldn't take care of. The actual donation left me pretty weak but two days after donation I am feeling pretty good with just a bit of fatigue left. It is a very simple process and it didn't cost me anything but time and a little discomfort. I highly recommend getting on the registry. The more that are on it the more people can be saved. Brad insisted on taking a couple of pictures of me during the donation so I will include them but not because I like them - I actually hate the pictures but it shows how easy it was. We watched two movies and it was over! I went back to the hotel room and slept a little while. Brad and Ryan, who had come to spend time with us, went to Arlington Cemetery. That's it. Brad and I did some sightseeing on the days that weren't raining while we were here and those blog entries will follow.