Bone Marrow Donation

About 3 years ago I signed up to be a bone marrow donor.  I never imagined that I would get a call that I was a match, but at the end of October that's exactly what I got.  I was told it was for a 7 year old little girl who has Fanconi Anemia.  I was sent in for more testing and the week of Christmas I got the phone call that I was a perfect match.  I was excited, nervous and humbled.  They told me that the donation was going to be in March or April, so I waited.  Most of March moved on and still I waited.  Finally at the end of March I got a call that we were ready to move forward.  I was sent for a complete physical and given a tentative donation date.  I would be doing a Peripheral Blood Stem Cell donation.  What that means is that for 4 days before the donation I have to take a medication called Filgrastim and the donation is a lot like giving plasma.  They take the blood out of one arm, remove the stem cells and marrow and give me back in the other arm what they don't need.

So I started the Filgrastim 3 days ago.  The side effects aren't pleasant, but tolerable.  For me it's been bone pain, muscle pain and insomnia.  Tylenol has been able to keep the edge off for the most part and the effects are actually getting less as the time goes on.  Maybe my body is just getting used to it.

Tomorrow I go in for the donation.  I'm ready for it to be done.  It's actually the easy part of the whole week.  I get to sit and watch movies for 4 hours.  After the donation I should be back to "normal" in a day or two.

So those are the facts.  Now how to I "feel" about all of this?  I'm not going to lie, it hasn't been easy.  It's been painful, but I have to keep remembering that I'm doing this for a little girl so she can have a longer life.  There have been times when I just wanted to complain and cry that I don't want to do this anymore.  That it hurt too bad.  But I have a wonderfully supportive family who understands and has really picked up the slack and has kept encouraging me.

One of the hardest things is being praised for what I'm doing.  I don't want praise for it.  I do want people to know how important it is and to encourage others to sign up to be on the registry.  This short 5 day time period is minimal in the grand scheme of my life.  And for that I get to save a life.  Now that's pretty damn cool.