Be the Match

Somewhere in this country, there's a seven-year-old girl dying of leukemia.  Eight years ago, a friend of mine signed up with the National Marrow Donor Program during a registry drive at her college.  She joined eleven million people in the United States and millions more worldwide who have committed to donating bone marrow donate or cells from circulating blood (called PBSC donation) to any patient who matches to them.  Eight years later my friend learned she happens to be the best - and only - genetic match for this little girl.

As a mom, my heart immediately went out to the parents of this child.  I cannot imagine how painful it would be to have such a sick child, especially one who could die, and how helpless I would feel not being able to make my child better.  And when I thought about my friend being the one and only match, I wondered at first how the parents would feel about being so dependent on a stranger.  But then I realized it's not dependency they most likely feel, but hope.  Without bone marrow donation, this little girl is out of options.  But because my friend has been matched with her, there is now hope.

The opportunity to turn helpless into hope became my main motivator in joining the registry.  Registration is easy and free.  Create an account on the Be the Match website and request a registration kit.  I received a packet with four giant Q-tips and instructions on how to take a swab of my cheek cells.  I mail the cheek swabs back in and they tissue test the swabs and add me to the database, which doctors around the world can search. 

While registering involves just a few easy steps, actually donating bone marrow is admittedly a huge commitment.  The typical time commitment for the donation process is 20-30 hours of your time spread out over a four-to-six-week period because the lead-up to donation requires multiple doctors visits, tests and blood donations.  Then there's an actual procedure, which involves general anesthesia and a small incision in your back where a needled is inserted to remove the bone marrow.  But the procedure is short and routine enough that most donors don't stay overnight in the hospital.

The whole needle in the back thing initially made me gasp, but then I reminded myself I've done that before, but without general anesthesia.  They were called epidurals.  And I got them because I was in labor and in a lot of pain and I was tired, oh, and can I mention one more time, I was in labor.  Going through labor (plus two c-sections and a surgery for a ruptured fallopian tube and ovary) got me over my fear of needles really quickly and anything else in the medical world that made me feel squeamish.  The bone marrow donation procedure honestly sounds like a walk in the park.  And it feels like the least I can do to bring hope to someone else in this world.