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I was gonna say, walking around with someone else's blood sounds like it'd make for an entertaining crime drama episode.
CSI: LA did an episode about it in its earlier seasons. (As in, back when it was good.) This might be the one: http://www.csiguide.com/episodedetail.aspx?csi=157 .
Amit, let me wish you the best of luck. The coming days will be tough, sure, but they will seem insignificant compared to all the days you'll get to enjoy in the future. My girlfriend getting her transplant is easily the most beautiful thing I've seen in my life. It's literally life in liquid form.
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It must be so ________* to have your life expectancy over the next few years calculated like that. *Jarring, frightening, emotional, scary, disconcerting? What's the right word. Maybe all of them.
Those first couple weeks I was pretty sad and felt sorry for myself a lot. When friends started organizing drives I got totally immersed in helping to organize those and forgot about everything else. When that trailed off, I guess I'd come to terms with it. I wish I knew exactly how long I had, but nobody ever does. I'm looking forward to using this as an excuse to do a lot of things I'd been putting off and living t…
> At this point, my blood type changes to the blood type of my donor. And my blood will now have my donor’s DNA, not my own. That's actually really fascinating. This perpetuates for life? This would seem to imply that a person who's received a transplant will, thirty years later, be walking around with two separate sets of DNA, as the other cells in the body presumably would not change. Given that DNA is (indirectly)…
As a total non-biologist, doesn't the "10/10" refer to the parts of the cells that touch and communicate? That is, the interface? If so, I would guess that what DNA is inside doesn't matter for the purpose of compatibility. Walks like a duck . . .
1) DNA is transcribed to RNA
2) RNA is translated into protein
3) Proteins do work
In this case, the 10/10 are probably cell surface markers, which are proteins in a specific conformation (with possibly some other types molecules attached). And yes, one of their roles is touching and communication. So the important part for compatibility is that the DNA that ultimately makes those proteins match Amit's DNA. After that, you have made a pretty good match, so you are then just hoping that they are healthy in all other regards.
To use a programming analogy, the 10 markers could represent an Interface definition. Amit's blood has that Interface, but the underlying class has a severe bug. The donor's blood has the same Interface, but has a better implementation.
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wow, and you were the one who got me! i "was" in the same boat..passed it up, but after reading your post and the follow up, i just had to signed up. good luck; eat healthy. update: just finished signing up and it took a whole 7 mins. thanks for the nudge :) http://dl.dropbox.com/u/103326/Slingshot/Pictures/Screen%20S...
Thank you, lovesdir & fady!! You could totally have just set yourself up to save a life. Isn't that amazing? Yes, I'm all moony right now but I'm so happy. If you're reading this & on the fence about registering, especially if you are non-white or mixed race (& ESPECIALLY Asian + Caucasian), please check out this little site about an adorable little 4-year-old boy who loves sharks and desperately needs to find a dono…
I found out while in a taxi cab this morning & I started crying. So thankful. So glad I could (maybe) help. It's such a simple thing to save someone's life like this. Please register to be a marrow donor today. It's no more work than sucking on a lollipop & even the donation process these days is usually not much worse than blood donation (it just takes longer): http://marrow.org/Join/Join_Now/Join_Now.aspx This is E…
I found out while in a taxi cab this morning & I started crying. So thankful. So glad I could (maybe) help. It's such a simple thing to save someone's life like this. Please register to be a marrow donor today. It's no more work than sucking on a lollipop & even the donation process these days is usually not much worse than blood donation (it just takes longer): http://marrow.org/Join/Join_Now/Join_Now.aspx This is E…
> At this point, my blood type changes to the blood type of my donor. And my blood will now have my donor’s DNA, not my own. That's actually really fascinating. This perpetuates for life? This would seem to imply that a person who's received a transplant will, thirty years later, be walking around with two separate sets of DNA, as the other cells in the body presumably would not change. Given that DNA is (indirectly)…
I'm sure it does cause potential complications to an extent. However, I know of at least two comparable situations that occur without medical intervention: 1) Pregnant women -- During pregnancy, and to some extent afterward, the mother's blood contains cells from the fetus she is carrying. Some of these cells migrate to other places of the body. Scientists hypothesize that this is part of why pregnancy may lower canc…
Completely off-topic: I feel more grateful for the access to Wikipedia after a blackout day.
Good luck, Amit, with your plan!
> At this point, my blood type changes to the blood type of my donor. And my blood will now have my donor’s DNA, not my own. That's actually really fascinating. This perpetuates for life? This would seem to imply that a person who's received a transplant will, thirty years later, be walking around with two separate sets of DNA, as the other cells in the body presumably would not change. Given that DNA is (indirectly)…
Yep, perpetuates for life. It's called Chimerism. I'd be interested (obviously) in finding out what other implications this might have for me long term besides enabling me to life a life of crime. ;-)