Stem Cell Donation Meeting

[FLAMESRULE]

So 5 years ago my wife made a life changing donation to a stranger. She had no idea who this person was, where they were, what their disease was, or anything else about them. She gave willingly and without second thought to help this person.

A year after the donation, and if both parties agree, your contact information is shared with each other. Wifey finally met David over the phone shortly after the birth of his first son, ~10days after their anniversary, and on Fathers Day for the 1st anniversary of the donation. Everything was going ok, but there was some complications.

We finally met her recipient this weekend for a 5 year anniversary in Nanaimo. It was one of the most powerful meetings, ever. Even for people who overheard us talking, the waitress at the restaurant we had dinner at, the bartender balling her eyes out, the rental car check-in lady with goosebumps, etc.

This video will bring some onions. Cry. But know that so far everything is working out. https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v...985867&fref=nf

Just had to share this story. Please go donate blood. Ask to join One Match, it is SOOOO easy. You will likely never be a match, but take the chance that you are.

http://www.blood.ca/CentreApps/Inter...o_save_a_life?

[FLAMESRULE]

First meeting at Pipers Lagoon. Seriously, go book a blood donation and sign up for One Match.

[Hockeyguy15]

Already a member but thanks for bringing it up, I needed to change my address they had on file.

[MoneyGuy]

My next blood donation will be my 25th. It'd be a lot more but we travel a lot and they ban me for a year each time we go to exotic locations. My daughter and son-in-law donate plasma weekly and my son donates when he can. The missus can't donate. This is important.

[Nyah]

Due to my low blood pressure, I'm not a great candidate for blood donation (or so I've been told). I'm registered with One Match though. Just out of curiosity, how was the donating part for your wife & what was the recovery time like?

[FLAMESRULE]

Originally Posted by Nyah

Due to my low blood pressure, I'm not a great candidate for blood donation (or so I've been told). I'm registered with One Match though. Just out of curiosity, how was the donating part for your wife & what was the recovery time like?

Don't believe that, my wife has low BP as well it just takes her 15min instead of 5 like me.

The donation is quite serious. They give you numerous drugs to stimulate the production of bone marrow. It's typically a 2-3month process but due to the severity of his cancer wifey only had 1 month. So she was in quite a bit of discomfort (long bones ache like crazy). The day of the donation she was admitted as a patient to the hospital. She got hooked up to some separation machine and had a jugular stent put in. Her blood was then filtered out 8-10x to fill the stem cell amount, this took about 10hrs. After it was done her stem cells were flown to Vancouver and were given to the patient immediately. It takes about 3-4 weeks for the new stem cells to graft to the recipient. After that his white blood count starts to go up and hopefully it takes. She had to be under 48hr care with no driving, quick motion, etc. That stent is HUGE. After that I don't recall any other issues.

The stimulating drugs are serious. They can cause numerous health issues. But she said she would make the same decision every time.

[gladaki]

I don't think they take blood if you travel to South Asia in last few years.

[MoneyGuy]

Originally Posted by gladaki

I don't think they take blood if you travel to South Asia in last few years.

Not necessarily, and it's one year not a few. It depends where you go.

The Red Cross told me that the major cities are fine. Elsewhere, not so much. Call the Red Cross. They have a list of places that are OK. We went to the Great Wall and cruised on a couple of rivers so I'm banned for a year.

[MrMastodonFarm]

Originally Posted by MoneyGuy

My next blood donation will be my 25th. It'd be a lot more but we travel a lot and they ban me for a year each time we go to exotic locations. My daughter and son-in-law donate plasma weekly and my son donates when he can. The missus can't donate. This is important.

Thank you for finding a way to squeeze in a post about your regular exotic vacations in a thread about giving blood.

[northcrunk]

Originally Posted by MoneyGuy

Not necessarily, and it's one year not a few. It depends where you go.

The Red Cross told me that the major cities are fine. Elsewhere, not so much. Call the Red Cross. They have a list of places that are OK. We went to the Great Wall and cruised on a couple of rivers so I'm banned for a year.

Dominican is a country which will restrict you from donating for 1 year after visiting. Every time we go my wife donates blood a few weeks before because she is RHO-. I will definatly encourage my daughter to as well when they are older since they too are RHO-.

[GP_Matt]

Originally Posted by FLAMESRULE

Don't believe that, my wife has low BP as well it just takes her 15min instead of 5 like me.

I had a nurse tell me that the blood has to be out in a certain time frame and if it isn't they can't use it. (Or maybe they can only use the plasma)
Anyway, they hinted, but didn't outright tell me, to stop coming as my veins are small and my blood drains very slowly.

On a side note, a few years ago they announced that it was too much work to come to Grande Prairie to collect blood and so they were going to stick to places closer to Edmonton for their drives.

[Hockeyguy15]

Originally Posted by GP_Matt

I had a nurse tell me that the blood has to be out in a certain time frame and if it isn't they can't use it. (Or maybe they can only use the plasma)
Anyway, they hinted, but didn't outright tell me, to stop coming as my veins are small and my blood drains very slowly.

On a side note, a few years ago they announced that it was too much work to come to Grande Prairie to collect blood and so they were going to stick to places closer to Edmonton for their drives.

I don't think it has anything to do with the blood itsself being useable. There is anticoagulant in the blood bag, so if there is not enough blood in the bag it cannot be given to someone else because there would be too much anticoagulant in there. If they overfill a bag I believe it is not usable either.

I believe the reason you get cut off after a certain amount of time has to do with the blood clotting in the tube/needle, but I could be wrong.

[FLAMESRULE]

Originally Posted by GP_Matt

I had a nurse tell me that the blood has to be out in a certain time frame and if it isn't they can't use it. (Or maybe they can only use the plasma)
Anyway, they hinted, but didn't outright tell me, to stop coming as my veins are small and my blood drains very slowly.

On a side note, a few years ago they announced that it was too much work to come to Grande Prairie to collect blood and so they were going to stick to places closer to Edmonton for their drives.

Weird, you'd think GP would be a decent stop to make.

I know when we booked a couple weeks ago that the nurse said the blood bank is pretty low right.

David, the recipient from Wifey, needs 1 transfusion every month and will for the rest of his life. The chemo killed his ability to make some proteins and anti-bodies so he has to get them from donations.

www.onematch.ca
http://www.blood.ca/

[smoothpops]

Originally Posted by FLAMESRULE

So 5 years ago my wife made a life changing donation to a stranger. She had no idea who this person was, where they were, what their disease was, or anything else about them. She gave willingly and without second thought to help this person.

A year after the donation, and if both parties agree, your contact information is shared with each other. Wifey finally met David over the phone shortly after the birth of his first son, ~10days after their anniversary, and on Fathers Day for the 1st anniversary of the donation. Everything was going ok, but there was some complications.

We finally met her recipient this weekend for a 5 year anniversary in Nanaimo. It was one of the most powerful meetings, ever. Even for people who overheard us talking, the waitress at the restaurant we had dinner at, the bartender balling her eyes out, the rental car check-in lady with goosebumps, etc.

This video will bring some onions. Cry. But know that so far everything is working out. https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v...985867&fref=nf

Just had to share this story. Please go donate blood. Ask to join One Match, it is SOOOO easy. You will likely never be a match, but take the chance that you are.

http://www.blood.ca/CentreApps/Inter...o_save_a_life?

As someone who has been on the transplant list for almost 7 years, I can't quite put into words how amazing your wife's selfless act was. Also, a huge thank you for posting the story and raising awareness for One Match. Giant steps have been taken in Alberta recently to improve our organ donation rates, (currently in Alberta there are 306 fellow dialysis patients patiently waiting for a kidney. Alberta has the slowest rate of receiving donated organs of all the provinces). The biggest myth surrounding Dialysis is that it completely acts as a kidney every 2-3 days, but the reality is it's only effective upto 60%, which means as a 30 year old, i've been watching my body break down a lot faster than my peers. To donate an organ to someone, (whether it be a kidney, lung, liver, blood/plasma, stem cells, etc...) is really an understated life changer, that effects not only the recipient but also the recipient's family and friends. Thank you to you and your wonderful wife!

[FLAMESRULE]

Originally Posted by smoothpops

As someone who has been on the transplant list for almost 7 years, I can't quite put into words how amazing your wife's selfless act was. Also, a huge thank you for posting the story and raising awareness for One Match. Giant steps have been taken in Alberta recently to improve our organ donation rates, (currently in Alberta there are 306 fellow dialysis patients patiently waiting for a kidney. Alberta has the slowest rate of receiving donated organs of all the provinces). The biggest myth surrounding Dialysis is that it completely acts as a kidney every 2-3 days, but the reality is it's only effective upto 60%, which means as a 30 year old, i've been watching my body break down a lot faster than my peers. To donate an organ to someone, (whether it be a kidney, lung, liver, blood/plasma, stem cells, etc...) is really an understated life changer, that effects not only the recipient but also the recipient's family and friends. Thank you to you and your wonderful wife!

I can't speak for Wifey, but I will anyways ...she would do it over again, repeatedly, if she was required too. It's the definition of being human. She/we hope that everyone would do the same if given the opportunity and that the act of donation is an easy one, its people like you that have the real struggle and are the brave ones.

Good luck with your donation process. It's not easy, be patient and positive, and know that people out there are doing the right thing.