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Something to consider...


Doug Wellington
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In 2006, I found out that saxophonist Michael Brecker had leukemia and needed a bone marrow transplant.  Well, I'm not the kind of person who donates money to causes, I'd rather take action myself.  I'm in the States, so I signed up with the National Marrow Donor Program.  (<http://www.marrow.org>)

I wasn't a match for Michael, but a couple weeks ago I was matched with another leukemia patient.  I'm now in the middle of filling out forms and traveling back and forth to Southern California for exams, blood donation, and ultimately, around the end of the month, I'll go over for a couple days to actually donate bone marrow.  Yes, that means I'll be out of commission for a couple days, and yes, it will probably be painful, but I'll heal up and regenerate my bone marrow in a couple weeks.  I believe that life is precious and the earth is a beautiful place, and if I can help someone else so that they can stop suffering and live a bit longer, it will be worth it.

I hope some of you will consider becoming marrow and/or organ donors yourself...

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I hope some of you will consider becoming marrow and/or organ donors yourself...

Awesome. Your post has got me thinking about this again; haven't considered it for quite a while.

Hope you don't mind, but I have a few questions...

So what is involved in donating?

Is it a major surgical procedure? I seem to recall that any open bone surgery was a pretty big deal. Of course, opening the bone in a controlled environment would certainly help.

How is the marrow extracted?

Is the procedure performed under general anaesthetic?

Much respect to you for doing this!

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So what is involved in donating?

There are two possible procedures - for some situations, they take "peripheral blood stem cells" by hooking you up to an apheresis machine - this is sort of like the kidney dialysis process - they circulate your blood through a device that removes the needed cells and then returns the rest to your body.  This is done as an outpatient procedure and you basically just sit in a chair for a little while with a tube in each arm.

Many times, they need actual bone marrow.  While it is more serious than the apheresis process, I'm not sure I'd call it "major" surgery.  About 3/4 of marrow donors are put under a general anesthetic and the rest use epidural or spinal anesthetic.  You are placed on your stomach and two small incisions (~5mm) are made in your lower back, then needles are inserted through those incisions into the hip bone.  Then they attach a bottle to the needle and collect the marrow.  Once they're done, they pull the needles out and bandage you up.  Since the incisions are so small, they don't need to put in stitches.  Some people are back at work the next day, and others take up to a week to return.  It doesn't take long for the incisions to heal, and it takes 2-3 weeks to completely regenerate all your bone marrow...

It's been a good inspiration for me to get back to regular meridian qigong practice too...  :)

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You do QiGong?

I've been doing various martial arts since the late 1970's.  About ten years ago I switched from the hard styles (Japanese, Okinawan, Korean) to the softer styles (Chinese).  I studied Wu Style Taichi, then Chen Style, and then one day I found a book on Bagua Zhang.  Imagine my surprise when it listed a teacher right here in Tucson!  I actually started with him doing Xingyi Chuan instead of Bagua, but I think that was a good choice - the Xingyi system is simpler and emphasizes the fundamentals of internal strength.  Once the school started bringing the Gao Style Bagua teachers over for training sessions, I started working with Bagua, and I haven't done as much Xingyi since...

My teacher is also an OMD, specializing in acupuncture and cranio-sacral therapy, so as part of the school, we not only study the martial arts, but also the healing arts.  Various forms of qigong are part of that whole process...

:)

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I've just done a bit of Karate, Jiujistu, and kick boxing. I really like the physicality of kick boxing training, and its easy to get started with. I have no interest in ring fighting though.

Chinese styles are really interesting though. I can't really see myself taking the time to learn Chinese martial arts though.

Traditional kick boxing styles actually have a bit in common with the Gongfu, with a lot of rotary movements. That's not something that I have really practiced though.

I am keen to try Brazillian Jiujitsu (ground fighting). I like grappling, and that style seems rather impressive.

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I ve been an organ donor since age 18, not that i had that much to do except writing my signature here and there, then i moved out of Italy and things became more difficult, i remember that in Sweden i was not allowed to give my blood cause i was a foreigner.

Now i am more or less settled in Spain and, thanks to DW, i think i ll see if i can subscribe as an organ donor here.

Simone

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Donating blood good. I do that too. Painless, fast and still helpful.

And that first pint and smoke afterwards go straight to the head!

sure, unless you find an idiot who will break you a vein, flood your arm with your own blood and make you look like if you were a junkie for a week.

Have also had that problem :o/

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sure, unless you find an idiot who will break you a vein, flood your arm with your own blood and make you look like if you were a junkie for a week.

At least they found your vein... one time when I donated blood, they tried five times in each arm. For some reason they don't let you DIY even though I bet I could do a better job...

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...they don't let you DIY even though I bet I could do a better job...

Actually I have done that myself, in a hospital China. I had a practising nurse failing horribly. She protested somewhat when I wrested the needle tip from her, but I did indeed do a better job, getting the vein first time. When it was over, I didn't wait for her to come back to remove the needle either, I just helped myself. The nurse was a bit upset, but I was none too impressed either.

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Yaknow, I hate to be "that guy", and I've been keeping this to myself, but fuckit...

Survival of the fittest? Overpopulation?

I'll let you guys do the rest...

Ummmm, yeh....

It is an issue, I don't know what we can do about it though, apart from populating the moon. I think it's going to be a real problem in the not too distant future. What do you do when there's not enough romm or resources for the growing population? Hopefully technology will come up with a solution to it, that way I don't have to think about it too much.  ???

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Doesn't stop me from being compassionate about my fellow human beings...

I know that you save the sick person through compassion, and don't get me wrong, although I don't entirely agree with it, I find it admirable, especially that you've supported the cause here.... but the point is that it may well be showing compassion to others, by not helping the individual. It runs deeper than the individual you save, and that's something you won't see on tv ads ;)

It makes sense that people assume or agree that saving someone is the 'nice' thing to do. Most people have an innate fear of death and fear of loss of loved ones - Of course the knee jerk reaction is going to be to save as many people as you can. Everyone does the mental "what if it was me/my mum/my wife/my kid/etc". We all cried when we realised as children that our parents would die one day... It also means that, when people say what I did, it's hard to meet with an objective response. People tend to instantly assume you're being a cold bastard and lacking compassion, and it's not like that.

Hmm, a really "fit" person gets hit by a drunk driver and needs blood. That's something that is not fully considered in "survival of the fittest" imo ;-)

That one falls into the overpopulation category. This one leads me to a question I'm yet to find a realistic answer to: Where do we draw the line? it's entirely possible that within the next century, we'll have the technology to regrow a great deal of the human body. What if our medicine became so advanced that we could live for 200, 300, 500 years? Heck, what if we find new ways to repair the central nervous system (that being, the big thing we can't swap out?) Or duplicate a human brain? In the year 3000, will we make humans that can live forever? Hypothesising that it's possible, should we? If saving a young man in his prime gives him 50 years, great, what if we can give him 100? 500? Do we have to almost literally draw the line and say "noone over 200 gets saved?" The mind boggles.

But for now at least, everyone's gotta go sometime... Even innocent bystanders in traffic accidents, even sick people, even the people we love, even ourselves... Some of us will think that "sometime" should be "whenever it happens", and some will think that it should be "as late as possible", or maybe some sweet spot in the middle. Surely we'll all agree that it can be devastating when it happens, but I doubt we'll all come to agreement about when.... But like the topic says, it's something to consider - if you can do it objectively, it's interesting stuff. Otherwise, it won't be in consideration for long, your heart will make up your mind for you rather quickly.

Can't we discuss something less controversial, like abortion or terrorism or politics or something?

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And how many of those 8000 Sq meters are in-habitable.

Is that figure land-mass or does it include the oceans?

oceans not included, well, take away the poles,rivers,lakes,mountain peaks, and Los Angeles, still you have a few thousands sq meters each

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