Not sure where to post this… I had a call from the national blood bank, they are in urgent need of O (rh-) blood. If you have this bloodtype, and are willing to donate, I know the “blood bank bus” at NTU will be there tomorrow, maybe someone else here knows of other locations.
If you donate, you need to take ID - passport or ARC. You can’t donate if you
have been to certain countries within the last 12 months, such as some SouthEast Asian countries or those with high levels of malaria (sorry, don’t know the full list)
have taken medication such as cold medicine within the last 7 days
have your period
I’m used to feeling a bit of a prick, anyway. :s[/quote]
I used to give blood regularly, but they stopped accepting it a few years back on account of the British BSE. At least that’s what they told me. Maybe they just thought I looked icky. Which will rule you out too Stray Dog – the icky part I mean.
[quote=“asiababy”]914, how does bone marrow donation work?[/quote]When you register they take a blood sample, and then if or when someone needs some marrow and your DNA is compatible, you go in for an operation and they put an enormous needle in your leg to take some bone marrow out of your thigh. I’ve been registered for many years but I haven’t been called yet.
The enormous needle back home is in your lower spine, right above your ass. They stick a big ass needle in there and take marrow out of your bone. I hear healing time takes on average two weeks and it’s quite painful. All you have to do is ask the blood donor clinic for information on bone marrow donation.
It’s a painful process and makes you very weak, so many people are wary of donating bone marrow. If they find my match I don’t even know if I’m brave enough to donate.
That ain’t how it works. Bone marrow harvest involves going into the operation room, lying prone, having large bore needles drilled into the pelvic crest for 30-50 times to aspirate liquid marrow specimen. Why so many sticks? Each aspirate should be no more than 5-10cc, otherwise the marrow is too diluted by regular blood. General anesthesia is used. In the future, all marrow stem cells may be collected through regular IVs after the donor receives a series of growth factor injections to prompt release of stem cells into the peripheral blood. This method is the primary method of stem cell harvest for donors who are relatives of the recipients.
That ain’t what the nurse told me when I decided to become a donor! She didn’t mention 30-50 times, large bore needles (how many?)…I remember she said you will pain be lying down with a needle pain in your lower back (the pelvic crest you mention?) and pain…
Have you had it done? Please tell me you have. I like first hand accounts. How was it like?
Perhaps the nurse did not want to be too graphic in describing the procedure. Anyhow, how many needles being used–depends on how fast each needle tip dulls. The procedure is usually done by two persons, one stands on each side of the donor, both drilling into the the top portion of the hip bone (iliac crest). The marrow aspirate needle will become dull after a few sticks. With each stick, you would try to get 3-4 aspirates, pivot the needle to different directions from the same “hole” to get marrow from slightly different areas. You suck too much marrow from one spot, you get marrow diluted with peripheral blood. It is physically tiring for the operators, hence two persons usually, if more poeple are available, trade off when one’s arm wears out doing the drilling.
In all likelihood, when you are called to duty, all marrow stem cells may be harvested via peripheral stem cell collections, so don’t worry too much or rush to disenroll yourself from the marrow donor list. Like I said earlier, if you were to donate for yourself or your relative, the harvest would be done through peripheral methods, involving no more than IVs connected to pheresis machines similar to platelet donation.
I’ve done the harvesting procedure, never gone through the donating part.
I have no idea what type of blood I have. Is that bad?
Locals have asked what blood type I have a few times, and are always dumbfounded when I say I don’t know.
Is it just me or do people here pay more importance to it than in the West? OK, I’m sure that that knowledge comes in handy in certain types of medical emergency, but I mean it seems to have more significance than that here. For example, the book I’m currently reading has a three line note about the translator inside the cover that roughly translates as ‘Mr so-and-so, born in the year of the horse, blood type AB, Aries, graduate of NTU’s Department of Geology…’
WTF? Why do we need that information? Not to mention his bloody star sign. But that’s a matter for another thread…
[quote=“haribo”]For example, the book I’m currently reading has a three line note about the translator inside the cover that roughly translates as ‘Mr so-and-so, born in the year of the horse, blood type AB, Aries, graduate of NTU’s Department of Geology…’
WTF? Why do we need that information? Not to mention his bloody star sign. But that’s a matter for another thread…[/quote]
They mention blood type for the same reason they mention the star sign - they believe they are indicators of people’s personality tendencies. People here are astounded that westerners don’t know their blood types - it’s as if we didn’t know our own star signs.
I used to think that job applications asked peole’s blood types here in case of emergency. No. It’s to determine your personality.
It all started from a book written in the 1920s by a Japanese author, and it stuck.