There are two types of bone marrow transplantation processes, allogeneic and autologous. In the first process, a cancer patient can get stem cells from a donor. In the second process, the cells are extracted from the patient’s body. If you want to become a donor, your age must be from 18 to 44.

For many people finding the right match for the transplant of bone marrow is the only hope to get cured. Keeping this in mind the national marrow program for donors has started a registration process. Here interested and prospective donors can register their names, and they will be tested to get their names enrolled in the registry. The donation process will always remain the same even if you want to register for the book or donate to a family member. 

How to donate bone marrow?

The success of a bone marrow transplant relies on the perfect bone marrow donor match. Other than matching blood groups, matching the stem cells of bone marrow is a complicated task. To check if you are a potential match for bone marrow donation, you will go through tests to find the type of HLA or human leukocyte antigen you possess. If the HLA matches closely, there will be a good chance of doing the transplant successfully. Healthy bone marrow has white blood cells that produce immunity power to the body, thus matching is very important. 

Fortunately, nowadays you won’t have to give the Asian bone marrow donor to see if it matches. The system is simple as it’s processed with a sample of your DNA. If you have the primary match, you will have to go through blood tests. These tests will provide better insights to the doctors about your human leukocyte antigen type. 

The bone marrow donation procedure: 

If you are willing how to donate bone marrow, then you have to PSBC collection which is known as the peripheral blood stem cell. For five days till the day of donation, you will get the five minutes injection of G-CDF which is a granulocyte colony-stimulating factor, and this is a growth hormone for white blood cells. On the last day of the fifth, a healthcare professional will insert needles into your both arms. One will take blood and a machine will test the blood to collect the stem cells. Then the blood will return to your skin through the second needle. This is a lengthy process that will take at least three hours to complete. You might get side effects like discomfort from needles, bone soreness, and headaches. 

Although, it’s uncommon for some donors to have to go through a harvest for bone marrow. In this procedure, doctors will take bone marrow from the donor’s hip bone. Donors can home on the same day of the surgery and can do their normal work within a week. There are also some side effects after this procedure such as fatigue, headache, and nausea. 

Recovery from bone marrow donation

When you prepare to match for bone marrow donation, you must be worried about the risks. However, there are no severe risks other than fatigue, mild weakness in the bones, and headaches. These symptoms will go away within a week of the donation. 

Conclusion

After the surgery, you might vomit and feel nauseous. You might get headaches and your blood pressure can decrease. However, there is a very small chance of damaging your bones. Check out the full information in this article.

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