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United States43725 Posts
I've had a fairly eventful few days that probably merit a blog so I figured I'd do one. But first, backstory. I'm on a stem cell/bone marrow registry maintained by a charity called the Anthony Nolan Trust (named after Anthony Nolan who couldn't get a donor and died and his bereaved parents founded it and you should join if you're from the UK (http://www.anthonynolan.org/) or your local equivalent if you're not) and they contacted me a few months ago because I was a potential match. After a lot of blood samples and testing and all that jazz I reached the stage last week where they started injecting me with stuff. I was a match for some guy with leukemia and it/treatment was destroying his immune system so they wanted me to give them a load of compatible stem cells to give to him because his bone marrow was too decimated to make his own. Something like that anyway, I don't know the details.
Anyway, I got dosed up with lots of injections of growth hormones and shit so I made loads of stem cells which overflowed into my blood and by Tuesday the time had come for the harvest. The Anthony Nolan Trust were happy to give me plus a companion a hotel plus expenses in London for the duration of the procedure. I got the train up early and hung out with some old friends living in the capital who I'd not seen in ages which was really cool. We played some SC2 (he's Silver) but with me on his shoulder issuing a stream of commands we were able to hulksmash the opposition. Pizza, old friends, Starcraft 2, good times.
My companion finished work and came up to join me so we went to search for our hotel which was really nice and way outside our normal price range and next to Regent's Park which is an awesome place to be in London. Room service, dvds and bed.
Early start Wednesday to be in the hospital for... the harvest. I got in the hospital for 9 and they got me hooked up to the machines. Both my companion and I both brought cameras because we thought it might be cool but I've only just gotten home so I only have a few.
The chair they strapped me to
+ Show Spoiler +
Here's the out tube.
+ Show Spoiler +
The centrifuge
+ Show Spoiler +
They mixed some anticoagulants and calcium into my blood I think and it went out one arm, into the machine where they spun out the stem cells which got separated and they gave the rest back in my other arm. The entire process lasted about five hours because I had massively overproduced stem cells so my blood was pretty much a panacea and they didn't need that much. Fortunately it wasn't actually too unpleasant because I had an extremely sweet girl unwrapping starburst and feeding me them and getting me drinks and we watched dvds and it was actually not a bad day. Anyway, they got what they needed (which turned out some weird brick red colour but she has the photo of that) and after a few more tests we were free to go in the early evening. They'd planned for a second day of collection but it wasn't necessary so we had an evening in the city and another free day to do what we liked.
Our more exciting plans for Wednesday night failed to materialise when our attempts to spend every penny of our expenses allowance on room service sent us both into a food induced coma. Zero regrets there to be honest. Going back to the room, getting tucked into bed and having people bring us food is pretty amazing, the hotel life is the way forwards. Unfortunately we woke up again at 10pm and couldn't get back to sleep until about 3am but whatever, still worth it.
So that brings me to today (technically yesterday now), our day off. And amazingly enough our hotel was about ten minutes walk across Regent's Park to London Zoo. After a long lie in and a late breakfast we strolled on over. The weather held up and it was brilliant. I saw this guy
+ Show Spoiler [Awesome!] +
And some of these
+ Show Spoiler [so cute!] +
A few of these
+ Show Spoiler [ROAR!!!] +
And one of these
+ Show Spoiler [DRAGONS!] +
And much much more. Also she bought me a toy lion which we named Ned and we had a picnic in the sun and it was a great day.
Eventually it had to end so we got the train home. Unfortunately we were caught up in the middle of this http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-13723005 and our train was stuck for six hours. It would have been incredibly shit alone but good company made it less so (although still not great). Still, it was somewhat amusing to me that I only spent around five hours in the blood harvesting chair whereas I spent six sitting down on the train to do a relatively simple journey. We survived in good spirits and I eventually made it home a little after 2am. A good few days.
TLDR
KwarK = panacea
TIGERS!
Train delays 
 
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United States24759 Posts
Getting dressed for a crazy medical procedure... where is my TL shirt?
LOL
Kwark I'm so glad this all worked out for you and I hope the suffering leading up to the procedure wasn't too bad.
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Always important to rep TL when curing cancer. 
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Hell yea next time I got to the hospital, for a donation or not, I'm TOTALLY wearing my TL.net shit dude, that's THE SHIT man! So really, I know you had a pre-existing appointment and all, but what gave you the idea to wear your TL.net shirt? Maybe that it could channel the Power of NaDa's body and cure your instatly? I though so GJob GJ in anycase and certainly GJ for you and your bone-marrow-budy
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Sounds like you had a good time overall and represented TL at its best in helping out a person in need. Funny stuff with the train though, my friend was stuck too, guess sitting it out wasn't the worst thing ever though!
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Those lionesses were totally badass, nice eye!
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Good for you Kwark! Its always great to hear a story like this. On a side note, did your companion stay with you overnight in your room? Since that is how I read it in the post...
All things aside though. Mad props to you for going through with this and I wish the best to recipient whoever they may be.
Edit - I also hope the recipient gets through the transplant okay and enjoys better health moving forward. I knew someone who went through that and its one of the most painful things they experienced, it did however stabilize their immune system to a certain degree.
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United States43725 Posts
On June 10 2011 11:36 BloodNinja wrote:
Good for you Kwark! Its always great to hear a story like this. On a side note, did your companion stay with you overnight in your room? Since that is how I read it in the post...
All things aside though. Mad props to you for going through with this and I wish the best to recipient whoever they may be.
Edit - I also hope the recipient gets through the transplant okay and enjoys better health moving forward. I knew someone who went through that and its one of the most painful things they experienced, it did however stabilize their immune system to a certain degree.
Not the whole night. We were provided with separate rooms and our sleep patterns were pretty out of sync, I crept back to mine to watch tv when she fell asleep.
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That sounds awesome OP. Those komodo dragons by the way, I think they are Komodo, are pretty crazy. When they bite an animal, even if they don't kill it, the animal gets a bacteria and dies anyway within a couple of hours. On another note that is much more positive!---What you did was really nice and I'm wondering, will you find out what happens to the person who receives the stem cells? As in, their recovery.
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United States43725 Posts
A guy from the Trust came round to see me and ask some questions and see how I was while I was donating. He said they'd tell me how he was in 4 months or so and again in a year. Hopefully good but I don't know what his chances/condition are.
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wow sorry wrong thread, i have not finished reading this yet, will edit my response in. sorry.
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Mad props to you KwarK.
My cynical self could never do what you did unless it was for a relative/good friend; my ethical view just cannot justify going through all that trouble (not to mention the monetary loss from both sides due to loss of income/undoubtedly expensive procedure) to save 1 person's life when the rest of the world is still basking in feces.
But even for someone as cynical as I, I can appreciate and recognize the value in what you did. Again, mad props yo ^^
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United States43725 Posts
On June 10 2011 12:24 Ravencruiser wrote:
Mad props to you KwarK.
My cynical self could never do what you did unless it was for a relative/good friend
Imagine you had a close friend and you wished you could save him (it really wasn't that much trouble) but you weren't a match. In the same ward is another pair of people, one dying and one helpless to stop them. You're a match for the other dying guy and their friend is a match for your friend, would you trade? If yes, expand the principle. You should at least get yourself on the registry.
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On June 10 2011 11:42 KwarK wrote:Show nested quote +On June 10 2011 11:36 BloodNinja wrote:
Good for you Kwark! Its always great to hear a story like this. On a side note, did your companion stay with you overnight in your room? Since that is how I read it in the post...
All things aside though. Mad props to you for going through with this and I wish the best to recipient whoever they may be.
Edit - I also hope the recipient gets through the transplant okay and enjoys better health moving forward. I knew someone who went through that and its one of the most painful things they experienced, it did however stabilize their immune system to a certain degree. Not the whole night. We were provided with separate rooms and our sleep patterns were pretty out of sync, I crept back to mine to watch tv when she fell asleep.
You didn't snuggle some? Lies!!!!!
While busting your balls, I do applaud you. I lost my father to cancer and have known a few others who have been diagnosed to various degrees (some have recovered, others have given timelines for how much time they have left). So anyone who does this gets massive props from me (not that it matters), and I hope more people will volunteer and more people will receive the treatments they need.
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That doesn't look anything like the throne made of corpses I imagined in my head. DISPATCH THE FREIGHTERS.
More on topic: sounds like a good cause. Are the restrictions the same as normal blood donation? Assuming you know, anyways. I can't donate blood due to a medical condition, despite wanting to in many cases.
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On June 10 2011 12:34 KwarK wrote:Show nested quote +On June 10 2011 12:24 Ravencruiser wrote:
Mad props to you KwarK.
My cynical self could never do what you did unless it was for a relative/good friend Imagine you had a close friend and you wished you could save him (it really wasn't that much trouble) but you weren't a match. In the same ward is another pair of people, one dying and one helpless to stop them. You're a match for the other dying guy and their friend is a match for your friend, would you trade? If yes, expand the principle. You should at least get yourself on the registry.
Yes of course, in a perfect scenario that would be ideal.
I learned this is in philosophy but can't remember what the term is; anyway the point is that for a issue like bone marrow donation, it would be ideal if everyone was on a central registry. If everyone, no, even if 70%+ of people put themselves up for donation then I'd follow suite without a doubt (70% is just my arbitrary estimate, I'm sure a certain tipping point number exists anywhere between 30-80%). However, the currently guaranteed knowledge that others will be selfish results in me not taking action, because I have much more to lose - the chance of a relative/friend getting matched from a relatively tiny donor pool is MUCH smaller than the good chance that I would be matched with the massive pool of people waiting for a transplant.
I'm just explaining the intuitive reason why people don't get themselves registered; you are a good person, a Samaritan, an outlier if you will. Which leads me to reiterate: mad props, the world needs more people like you.
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On June 10 2011 12:49 Torenhire wrote:
More on topic: sounds like a good cause. Are the restrictions the same as normal blood donation? Assuming you know, anyways. I can't donate blood due to a medical condition, despite wanting to in many cases.
While I don't know this group specifically, I imagine their restrictions are higher than normal given the recipients of the donations. Especially considering, those who receive marrow transplants typically have weakened immune systems.
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Its sucks that you can't donate if you are gay, and and I'm very nervous about signing up since I have a history of epilepsy, which is in the exclusion criteria, I still mean to give blood however.
Props to you Kwark, and it sucks about south west trains, notoriously terrible they be.
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United States24759 Posts
On June 10 2011 13:03 Kerotan wrote:
Its sucks that you can't donate if you are gay,
Um, did I miss this? Does it say it somewhere?
Why?
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On June 10 2011 12:50 Ravencruiser wrote:Show nested quote +On June 10 2011 12:34 KwarK wrote:On June 10 2011 12:24 Ravencruiser wrote:
Mad props to you KwarK.
My cynical self could never do what you did unless it was for a relative/good friend Imagine you had a close friend and you wished you could save him (it really wasn't that much trouble) but you weren't a match. In the same ward is another pair of people, one dying and one helpless to stop them. You're a match for the other dying guy and their friend is a match for your friend, would you trade? If yes, expand the principle. You should at least get yourself on the registry. Yes of course, in a perfect scenario that would be ideal. I learned this is in philosophy but can't remember what the term is; anyway the point is that for a issue like bone marrow donation, it would be ideal if everyone was on a central registry. If everyone, no, even if 70%+ of people put themselves up for donation then I'd follow suite without a doubt (70% is just my arbitrary estimate, I'm sure a certain tipping point number exists anywhere between 30-80%). However, the currently guaranteed knowledge that others will be selfish results in me not taking action, because I have much more to lose - the chance of a relative/friend getting matched from a relatively tiny donor pool is MUCH smaller than the good chance that I would be matched with the massive pool of people waiting for a transplant. I'm just explaining the intuitive reason why people don't get themselves registered; you are a good person, a Samaritan, an outlier if you will. Which leads me to reiterate: mad props, the world needs more people like you.
Actually, I believe the reason most people don't get registered is because they're lazy and can't be bothered with the hassle. I don't think most people have thought about percentages and whatnot lol. It's a gut feeling and, as dictated by societal morals, our gut says it's good to help others with minimal loss for ourselves (losing some blood).
I also believe my point because of some studies done with organ donations. In countries where you 'opt in', that is you fill out a form to get a donation card, organ donation rates are terrible. In countries where you 'opt out', you are donating unless you fill a form, the rates are great. There's a good TED talk on this idea of how in control we are of making our own decisions: http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_ariely_asks_are_we_in_control_of_our_own_decisions.html
It's slightly harder to implement an opt-out plan for bone marrow donations as the people are still living  . A better idea would be advertising and bringing it up with certain target groups eg. blood donors.
Anyways, sorry to derail lol. GJ Kwark, you are setting a good example for us all!
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On June 10 2011 13:09 micronesia wrote:Show nested quote +On June 10 2011 13:03 Kerotan wrote:
Its sucks that you can't donate if you are gay, Um, did I miss this? Does it say it somewhere? Why?
Possibly paranoia about HIV/AIDS or something like that?
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On June 10 2011 13:39 Z3kk wrote:Show nested quote +On June 10 2011 13:09 micronesia wrote:On June 10 2011 13:03 Kerotan wrote:
Its sucks that you can't donate if you are gay, Um, did I miss this? Does it say it somewhere? Why? Possibly paranoia about HIV/AIDS or something like that?
Yeah, the criteria is that men who have sex with men are verboten from blood donorship, on the antony nolan website its listed "dangerous sexual activity" or something.
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United States24759 Posts
On June 10 2011 19:11 Kerotan wrote:Show nested quote +On June 10 2011 13:39 Z3kk wrote:On June 10 2011 13:09 micronesia wrote:On June 10 2011 13:03 Kerotan wrote:
Its sucks that you can't donate if you are gay, Um, did I miss this? Does it say it somewhere? Why? Possibly paranoia about HIV/AIDS or something like that? Yeah, the criteria is that men who have sex with men are verboten from blood donorship, on the antony nolan website its listed "dangerous sexual activity" or something.
I found 'dangerous sexual activity' or something on their website, but it didn't mention gay sex...
There's a difference between being gay and having unprotected gay sex :-/
I also wonder what the statistics are about increased risk do to someone being gay (assuming for exmaple they have only 1 partner).
A guy who sleeps around with a ton of women is at a much higher risk than most gay guys, I'd think. Seems like bs.
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Well without querying them further, all I can tell you that UK blood donor policy, as listed on the give blood website, is that any man who has had sex with a man, without or without a condom, is forbidden to give blood.
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In the Netherlands it's the same. Gay men can't donate blood. I assume it's probably the same for other countries?
ps. great job donating. Hopefully I'll one day overcome my intense fear for needles so I can help out.
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United States43725 Posts
On June 10 2011 13:09 micronesia wrote:Show nested quote +On June 10 2011 13:03 Kerotan wrote:
Its sucks that you can't donate if you are gay, Um, did I miss this? Does it say it somewhere? Why?
For donating blood in the UK you can't donate because you're classified as high risk of HIV. For this I expect they'd make an exception and just test me for HIV because obviously my blood is worth the time.
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Kwark you look like you're on drugs sitting in that chair. Drugged up smile. Also we'll need to do extensive eve pvp when you get back, the zoo animals might have improved your attitude towards life.
And we can't have that.
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I said it before when i first heard of this, but this is really, really awesome. congrats on helping someone out bigtime!!
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