Enough distressing news! I was called this weekend by the blood donor center at NIH. They asked me to come in and donate plateletts ASAP - I'm a perfect match for one of their patients. I am the only local that can do it.<P>My wife and I joined the international bone marrow donor registry after our son went through a transplant. I encourage others to consider doing this.<P>Got to leave now to go bleed.<P>WAT

I, too, have been a platelet donor. Almost everything I gave for quite a long time went to one particular man. I was a perfect donor for the patient. The blood bank (American Red Cross) was able to tell me a lot about him though I never got to meet him. He sounded like a great guy. It's wonderful to be able to save a life and never break a sweat, be in no peril yourself, and it costs nothing. Such a wonderful feeling. <P>Everyone should try it.

Hey, happy bleeding. <P>I've been a blood donor for a long time - how do you sign up for the platletts thing? I've heard about that, but in honor of you and what you have been through (with your son and now your marriage), I thought I'd really check it out. Please let me know who I should contact or do they contact you?

I just want to say that I am so proud of all of you ! I am not allowed to donate anything , because if I did then the person recieving it would get Hep C too . <P>So from one who would but can not, THANK YOU to those who can and do.

SKM - Since I now know you're a Marylander, A really good place to donate blood and platelets is at Children's hospital in D.C. All their blood products go to kids. When my son was going thru treatment there, I gave every chance I got because of my status as CMV negative (cytomegalative virus), which my son required. You can also donate whole blood there. If you want to donate platelets, you have to donate a unit of whole blood first. During my son's treatments, he required a lot of blood and platelets. People from my agency gave over 150 units in his name. Call 202-884-5000 and ask for the donor center. i still go there when they call me as an HLA match.<P>Alternatively, you can go to NIH. Also at NIH you can enroll in the marrow donor registry. I'll post the phone number to you in my next "real" post. I'm sure the Red Cross has direct platelet donor places, but I don't know where in our area.<P>Please consider platelet donations. When the hospitals and Red Cross don't have enough platelets, they spin out the platelets from whole blood donations. It takes on average 8 units of whole blood to get one unit of platelets. Thus, there's 8 times the chance of transfusing something bad.<P>WAT

Nice to hear some good news. Actually, I didn't know you could donate platelets, so I'm going to look into that as well. Also, I have been thinking of going on the bone marrow registry, so this can be the wake up call for doing something about it.<P>

worthatry<BR>I got shivers when I read the title of your post.<BR>My brother (35) is in desperate need of a bone marrow transplant. None of our family match. We pray daily for an unrelated match.<P>I have had my test results placed on the unrelated donor list and hope that some day I will be able to help save someone's life even though I couldn't help my brother.<BR>Thankyou for sharing good news.<BR>You must feel wonderful.

WAT - Thanks for the phone number! I'll give them a call this week - just for you, cause I still need your vote! .<P>Wasstubborn - I will pray that your brother finds the match that he needs for a transplant.