does donating bone marrow hurt?
 

i am going for the cheek swab tomorrow morning for a cousin of a friend. i will just go ahead and register up in the database. apparently, asian marrow is hot stuff. i imagine a drill is involved?

I saw my mom go thru it 25 years ago, but i assume the medical process has improved.
It involved pounding a sharpened steel "straw" into her hip, then inserting some type of drill to tap into it.
Good thing for pain meds.

I believe it's VERY painful. Not trying to dissuade you, and I'm not certain. It's just what I think.

Cliff, why was your algebra teacher using trig quotes?

If you are talking about donating for a marrow transplant, there are multiple aspirations and it's often done under general anesthesia. If it's a single aspiration for some other purpose, not a big deal. I've had it done when I worked in a research lab (needed marrow for experiments and they paid me $50. Not bad when you are a college student in 1985). It was done under local, and the needle is pretty good sized -- similar caliber to the ink cartridge in a ball point pen. Some serious pressure to drive that sucker into the posterior iliac crest (back of the pelvic bone). The pain I would describe as 'dental-like' -- when they sucked the marrow out -- and I was sore for a few days. Probably how Tom Cruise feels after a night on the town ('power-bottom' joke for the uninitiated)

yes

i am chinese...i was very advanced.

thanks for the pain update. sheesh.

It has been more than 20 years since I participated in a bone marrow harvest but they were pretty brutal procedures requiring general anesthesia. Not as bad as donating a kidney though.

I've done them under local. Like driving a spike into someones hip with a mallet. If it were me, I'd want general anesthesia.

Funny, I say that pretty much every morning when I look in the mirror...

How much do they pay for it now adays? I need a job :)

Been on the bone marrow registry for a long time. If I'm a match for someone I'm going to do it.

It will hurt. But not as bad as dying. If I do it, then someone doesn't have to die. I'll get over the pain. As at least a local is involved, it probably is not any worse than unmedicated childbirth. Should be faster.

angela

christ! moses chimed in. mallet? spike? DAMNUM!