I'm on the registry, but have never been called. Thank your husband for me, my cousin benefited from an anonymous donor match. She was able to meet him a year after the procedure.

I am on the registry. I prayed to be a match for a dear friend's sibling(who has now passed). I am so thankful for your husband. Please share his experience.

I don't know anyone who has been a match-- but I have known a number of people who have been recipients. Thank you to your whole family .. but most especially your husband.

I too have been on the registry ( I think for over 20 years) and never been a match.

My goodness, this is very emotional. I never thought it could take 20 years.

Wishing the best to your husband and family.

Thank you to your husband, and all the others on the registry. I'm not on the registry, but my son-in-law is a physician who does them. I'm afraid he says it's much harder on the donor than the recipient. Good for you for preparing to help your husband through it. Good luck to all of you.

No, but I will keep both your DH and the recipient in my prayers for a positive outcome. Please thank him for me. He is indeed a most admirable person to do this for a fellow human being.

Please thank your dh for me. Not quite the same, but my father received a liver transplant 28 years ago. He is now in his 80s and got to see both of his kids graduate from college and graduate school, get married, and meet his four grandkids, plus a whole lot of other great stuff because of someone else's generosity.

DF, a firefighter-paramedic, was a donor. Said it was far worse than he expected, and may not have done it if he knew in advance how bad he was going to feel (this coming from a guy who runs into burning buildings for a living). However, when he later met the recipient and family, he was happy with his decision.

What a great guy you have. Best of luck to everyone involved!

No, I have no knowledge, but bravo to your DH for going through this for someone. Twenty years! I had no idea potential donors remained on a list that long. Praying for minimal discomfort for your DH and a positive outcome for the child. What a wonderful thing to be able to give hope!

Good for him, may his journey be easy. Twenty years later, how incredible.

Thanks all for your well wishes.

Mdln, how long ago did your dh go through the process? I only ask b/c my mother, a nurse, did a little bit of research into it and told me that the methods they use now, while not painless, are much less painful than the previous way they used to collect it. He does know that he's going to feel really crappy and that it certainly won't be pain free. I fully expect to have to baby him when he returns home. I was just curious how long he will be feeling bad. I think dh feels that the reward to this child is worth the pain he will have to undergo.

Roarah, what an experience, and one month before your wedding! They did offer to put dh up in a hotel for the entire time, but we live less than an hour from the hospital, and since he had to start today with shots, he wanted to be home for our dd's 18th bday and her prom tomorrow night. His mom will stay in the hotel the night before - I think he stays in the hospital that night. But he is supposed to come home the same day, once in the procedure is over. Did you stay that night, or the night before? I'm sorry to hear that the child you helped did not survive in the end, but what a blessing to have given her family two more years of time with her. Dh has indicated that he is willing to be contacted by the family, but obviously they will have to indicate whether they want to meet him. We know nothing about them other than the child's age and that the child lives in the US somewhere.

His first shot went well, but his BP was slightly elevated though within the acceptable limits. This does make me a little nervous b/c he has always had a good BP but in the last few weeks it has been higher than normal for him.

I will update how everything goes! Thanks again for the well wishes. He is very humble and has not told anyone other than family and people at work that need to know.

I have very low BP as a rule. Both my numbers are well below 100 and while on filagrastim I went into normal range but for my base line my body reacted like hypertension. They gave me a diuretic to counter that once I experienced dizziness and headaches. They take it each day and will respond accordingly if they notice any ill effects.

i went home within hours of the collection and after the extra platelets were removed I felt ten times better that night. The bone pain is a result of so many extra blood cells so once they take those out that ailment is gone! I was low energy for a little while until my platelet count returned to normal.

Good luck!

I never knew what bone pain meant. I will say toward the end of my shots I felt like someone was using a hammer on my hip bones. They offered opiate pain meds but I vomit on those so only could take Tylenol , no aspirin or Advil due to bleeding concerns with the extra white blood cells produced. It was probably a 7 out of ten on the pain scale when I was trying to sleep but not as bad during the days.

Good luck to your dear DH and the recipient. I registered years ago but I think the older you get the less likely you are sought for a match? In fact I thought you had to be pretty young to donate.

Question:

My children all donated their stem cells via cord blood at birth too

We had the stem cells stored. I wonder if you can store half and donate half? I wonder if you need a certain amount of them. Hmm.

Mtn, you can not do half and half. Many times they can not successfully collect enough at birth as is, something the banks do not tell you. I donated and figured if my kids needed it they would match their own on the registry and if they did not need it it would not go to waste.

My ob gyn would not do a collection for storage at all. When I first asked to do my first child's collection at an appointment he said no and I started to cry and explained that there was a little girl who might need it. My recipient was still alive at this time but was not doing well and there was talk of a second transplant and since I was a match there was a chance that my unborn child might be too.

When I explained it was for donation he said, " oh that I can support, but the storage banks for profit he felt were a scam. He mention the cord blood stem cells can only be stored effectively for a relatively short period of time and he hated that such banks make huge profit at the expense of parents' worst fears. Also less than .04 percent of banked blood gets used! 60 to 90 percent donated cord blood gets matched! Chances that a child can use their own cord blood is slim if their need for transplant is genetic aswell.He had some very valid concerns. But was so happy to do a donation collection.

Mtnrd, dh just turned 50 so apparently that is not too old to be a donor. Thank God, b/c who knows if this child would have found a match if dh had aged out of the registry.

4kids, somewhere i read that 95% of donors are under 45. I dont thin they delete donors though.

Wow, Roarah, I did know that the chances of using them were minute; i did not know that donated blood is used often. I wonder if it is too late to donate now. Wish my ob-gyn had told me what yours did.

ETA--- too bad, the answer is no. For anyone else who might wonder.

Q. If umbilical cord blood is stored in a family bank, can it be listed on Be The Match Registry at a later date?
A. No, currently cord blood stored privately cannot be listed on the registry at a later date.

As of when I last donated cord blood the stem cells were only kept for less than ten years I believe this is still true.

You are on a marrow donation list until you are sixty but younger donors are preferred if one is found. Cells grow better when you are younger and this is one reason cancers before fifty are not as common as cancer after sixty.

We still pay for storage for all my kids, who are teens. It's probably one big fraud, I mean who ever goes and checks, LOL!

Wishing your DH and the recipient the best. What an admirable thing to do for another person.

4kids4us and Roarah - a big thank you so much. Our family spent several tumultuous years with a youngster with leukaemia and many months in the hopes of a donor, so, thank-you. As well a thanks to all who have signed up on the bone marrow registry - I'd encourage anyone with young healthy 20-something year olds to ask them to consider signing up. I believe you remain in the database indefinitely, but as you get older, you would not be called upon. As indicated above, consider donating umbilical cord blood when you deliver your baby, if you have that option. Our donor match ended up being umbilical cord blood. I hope that the joy of knowing that you are one of the only persons in the world that might help save another's life will assuage the pain of the actual process of donation.

The little boy down the street from me had leukemia. His sister turned out to be a match for him. Siblings are not always compatible. I just googled, and sibs are matches only 25 percent of the time. Both kids are doing well. I used to notice that the boy picked on his sister a lot and that seems to have ended!

Donating to a perfect stranger is very admirable, but I bet most of us would do it, given the chance.

I just wanted to give a little update - yesterday was the day dh had the stem cell collected. He started the shots last Thursday and was fine Thursday and Friday. By Saturday he was starting to feel sore, and by Sunday, his back was bothering him, but he never complained and insisted on attending to all our family obligations as we had multiple sports games on Sunday. MIL flew in on Saturday night, and then late on Sunday, they went to the hospital afflicted with Georgetown. The next morning, they were picked up, along with another young woman and her MIL, and taken to the hospital for the procedure. It was about an 8 hr process. All in all, he said it wasn't that bad, uncomfortable but not painful. He wasn't really able to move his arms/hands due to the IVs, etc. so he couldn't read or use an iPad; he couldn't hold it and there was no way to prop it. He ended up watching TV and sleeping. They collected 24ml of stem cells which were then taken to the airport to be flown to wherever this young girl is located. We pray that all goes well on her end!

After he was done, he and MIL took an Uber to my son's high school lacrosse game. I couldn't believe he insisted on coming. We live about an hour from Georgetown so I figured he'd just want to get home and relax. He was exhausted and sore (he was moving like he was in a little pain). He felt pretty lucky with his experience though. The young woman he was undergoing the procedure with him had some awful side effects. She was nauseated, throwing up and dehydrated. MIL said she looked awful and felt so bad for her. She was also donating for a stranger and had flown in from St. Louis. All in all it was an amazing experience for our family and we are so proud of dh for this selfless act. I must admit that I was a little nervous b/c his BP was higher than normal for him and with possible complications being heart attack or stroke, this did concern me. Thankfully, he was fine. Now we hope and pray that it will save this young girl's life!

thanks for all of your words of support and advice from those with experience.

Such a wonderful thing to do. Thank you for the update.

Thanks for the update! Please, again, tell your DH how proud we are of him with this selfless act. I, too, wish for the very best outcome for his recipient.