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Saving a Life is Easy, But I Didn't

danshapiro.com

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Re: Saving a Life is Easy, But I Didn't

#21

Post by timr »

danshapiro wrote: post #13
timr wrote: post #7

"At the time, the only way to donate marrow was to basically have someone drill holes in your bones and drain your skeleton, which kind of terrified me. Nowadays, of course, most donations require nothing more than sitting still for a few hours with an IV watching television." That actually isn't really true. Marrow donations still require anesthesia and a surgical procedure. In the interest of providing full informa…

From your second link: PBSC donation is a non-surgical procedure done in an outpatient clinic. PBSC donors receive daily injections of a drug called filgrastim for five days, to increase the number of blood-forming cells in the bloodstream. Then, through a process called apheresis, a donor's blood is removed through a needle in one arm and passed through a machine that separates out the blood-forming cells. The remai…

Yes...you're quoting from the section to which I linked, and that's why I linked to it. I'm not trying to hide anything.

I'm also not trying to disagree that people should donate...it's just that you really do have to have a surgical procedure if you're donating marrow. Moreover, PBSC involves a five-day injection drug regimen (filgrastim) that you need to undergo before you get to sit in the chair (http://marrow.org/Registry_Members/Donation/Donation_FAQs.as...). Either way, it's a far more involved procedure than (say) donating plasma -- which is how your post made it sound.

The FAQ also says that PBSC donation is considered "investigational" (http://marrow.org/Registry_Members/Donation/Donation_FAQs.as...), though who knows what that means. I just think people should be able to read the answers so that they know what they're doing.

Re: Saving a Life is Easy, But I Didn't

#22

Post by tomjen3 »

heimidal wrote: post #17

This inspired me to register, but once again I was thwarted by the US' arcane rule banning gay men from donating. The rule applies despite the fact that I've been monogamous for ages and am tested for everything under the sun twice a year. A college frat boy who has had unprotected sex with a different girl every week for the past semester can give blood/marrow, but monogamous, healthy gay men can't. I don't get it.

It is the same shit for blood donations in Denmark. They got pretty unpopular when they asked for more donors because they feared a shortage but then turned away the gay men.

And no, it is not for health issues because they don't turn away gay women.

Of course you could register if you want to and then if called upon show up eagerly with your partner for moral support. Then flat out ask if they are going to kill their own patients just to pretend that it is still the fifties.

Of course don't do it if they can't get a donor in time.

Re: Saving a Life is Easy, But I Didn't

#23

Post by botker »

nknight wrote: post #3

Ouch. To the extent it's still relevant in the modern world, our postal system really needs to work a little more like the phone system. I can be pretty much anywhere in the US (or really, the world, if I want to pay international roaming fees), someone can dial my well-known phone number, and my phone will ring. For ordinary first class mail, I should be able to generate unique ID numbers on the USPS's website, and…

What you're proposing is basically the analog of DNS. We would have seen this years ago if only there was any real competition in the postal space.

Re: Saving a Life is Easy, But I Didn't

#24

Post by JVirissimo »

tomjen3 wrote: post #22
heimidal wrote: post #17

This inspired me to register, but once again I was thwarted by the US' arcane rule banning gay men from donating. The rule applies despite the fact that I've been monogamous for ages and am tested for everything under the sun twice a year. A college frat boy who has had unprotected sex with a different girl every week for the past semester can give blood/marrow, but monogamous, healthy gay men can't. I don't get it.

It is the same shit for blood donations in Denmark. They got pretty unpopular when they asked for more donors because they feared a shortage but then turned away the gay men. And no, it is not for health issues because they don't turn away gay women. Of course you could register if you want to and then if called upon show up eagerly with your partner for moral support. Then flat out ask if they are going to kill thei…

The assumption that gay women have the same risk profile as gay men seems very weak. Almost any group of women will, on average, engage in less risky behavior than an analogous group of men.

Re: Saving a Life is Easy, But I Didn't

#27

Post by AndyKelley »

nknight wrote: post #3

Ouch. To the extent it's still relevant in the modern world, our postal system really needs to work a little more like the phone system. I can be pretty much anywhere in the US (or really, the world, if I want to pay international roaming fees), someone can dial my well-known phone number, and my phone will ring. For ordinary first class mail, I should be able to generate unique ID numbers on the USPS's website, and…

Cool idea. Simpler one: the marrow donor place could collect email address instead of home address.

Re: Saving a Life is Easy, But I Didn't

#28

Post by itsnotvalid »

AndyKelley wrote: post #27
nknight wrote: post #3

Ouch. To the extent it's still relevant in the modern world, our postal system really needs to work a little more like the phone system. I can be pretty much anywhere in the US (or really, the world, if I want to pay international roaming fees), someone can dial my well-known phone number, and my phone will ring. For ordinary first class mail, I should be able to generate unique ID numbers on the USPS's website, and…

Cool idea. Simpler one: the marrow donor place could collect email address instead of home address.

They do collect email address now, but the author registered in 1995 and there were handful of people having an email address back then.

Re: Saving a Life is Easy, But I Didn't

#29

Post by itsnotvalid »

there wrote: post #8
nknight wrote: post #3

Ouch. To the extent it's still relevant in the modern world, our postal system really needs to work a little more like the phone system. I can be pretty much anywhere in the US (or really, the world, if I want to pay international roaming fees), someone can dial my well-known phone number, and my phone will ring. For ordinary first class mail, I should be able to generate unique ID numbers on the USPS's website, and…

according to the story, the post office did better than any phone provider would. he moved to a new location, maybe years later, and a piece of mail still followed him to his new address. i'm sure the registry gets notified of forwarding address changes for people on their lists, so they could in theory keep up with you even if you moved a bunch of times (as long as you forwarded from at least your last address). if…

You have to pay for mail forwarding and in case for a address that old it probably didn't really something worthwhile. But we have email addresses now.

Re: Saving a Life is Easy, But I Didn't

#30

Post by there »

itsnotvalid wrote: post #29
there wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

according to the story, the post office did better than any phone provider would. he moved to a new location, maybe years later, and a piece of mail still followed him to his new address. i'm sure the registry gets notified of forwarding address changes for people on their lists, so they could in theory keep up with you even if you moved a bunch of times (as long as you forwarded from at least your last address). if…

You have to pay for mail forwarding and in case for a address that old it probably didn't really something worthwhile. But we have email addresses now.

you do not have to pay for mail forwarding with the us post office. i've moved twice in the past few years and have had a bunch of mail forwarded without ever paying for anything.
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