19 July 2010

Bone Marrow

18 July
I spent the better part of this morning writing an article about a woman who donated bone marrow from stem cells. She got a bunch of injections that stimulated the growth of bone marrow cells, then they harvested them like they do plasma from blood. She sat hooked up to a machine that pulled her blood from one arm, filtered out the cells, then returned the blood to her other arm. It isn't as invasive as donating actual bone marrow, which entails knocking you out and drawing out the liquid marrow from your pelvic bone. Ouch.

I had no idea that donating had changed. Now I'm thinking about putting myself on the national bone marrow registry, especially if it isn't too much more involved that giving blood (which I try to do regularly). Still there is more discussion to be had around here, but I figure there isn't much at stake. Except to maybe save someone's life, that is.

Starting tomorrow, we are in vacation mode. My mother-in-law is visiting for a few days, then Adam and I drive to New York with her and Lily following us in a plane. Then two whole weeks of hanging out by Lake Ontario. Two. whole. weeks.

I'm trying to block out the fact that I'll have to be in full work mode when we return. Two classes, three times a week, and being a mama is sure to keep me busy this fall.

1 comment:

Joann Moorhead said...

Hey Lindsay! I am on the national registry! How neat would it be to get called on to help save someone's life?