“The desire to help others, I think I have always had it in me. Is that what motivated my professional choice?
I don’t know … What is certain is that I am a chronic empath! So when this colleague at the hospital told me about her brother with leukemia who had been lucky enough to have a bone marrow transplant from an anonymous donation (his family was not compatible), I ‘ve dark. I had already given my blood, nothing more, but at that moment, it struck me as obvious. After some research on the Internet, I was registered! I was seen by a doctor from the French Blood Establishment in Lille for a first check-up. I was weighed, measured, questioned … A blood test enabled my biological identity card to be established which, once entered in a software program, allows donors and patients to be matched all over the world. Some are registered but will never be called. They are simply asked to confirm their initial promise by mail every year.
I was lucky to be contacted …
In 2013, four years after my registration, a patient was compatible, finally … Was I still up for it? Yes, three times yes! Since then, not a week goes by that I don’t think about it. Besides, I talk about it a lot around me, to my friends, to my family. I try to widen the circle of giving but I have only convinced two or three people, including my cousin.
I believe that as long as one is not confronted with the disease oneself, it is difficult to take the plunge. And then there is the fear of blood, of the medical act. Between this call and the actual donation, six weeks passed, during which I had a complete check-up: cardiac, pulmonary, blood. If we organize ourselves well, it only takes a day. Then, five days before the date, I had to inject myself with growth factors in the morning and evening (you can do it yourself or call a nurse). Three days before the sample, I had another blood test to see if the level of bone marrow cells was increasing in the blood, and to check that I was not pregnant. Finally, the day before the donation, a final blood test.
My marrow was taken from the blood
When you register, you don’t really know much about the upcoming protocol.
Even I, who works in a medical environment, was not very reassured … I thought I should go through surgery.
Corn there are two sampling methods. One is done through the blood, the simplest, the one I benefited from, called “by apheresis”. The procedure takes four hours, one needle in each arm. The blood comes out on one side, is filtered so that the bone marrow cells are collected, then reinjected into the other arm. The other technique is heavier since it involves drawing directly from the source, in the posterior bones of the pelvis. It requires anesthesia and a passage to the operating room. It may seem worrying, it’s a long, somewhat complicated process that requires strong personal involvement. I am told that I am courageous, but it is the patients who are!
An invisible thread connects us
Me, I’m just healthy. I have devoted three days of my life to someone’s survival. I don’t feel like a superhero though. On the day of the donation, the doctor told me this sentence which has resonated with me ever since: “If you could meet the person who is going to receive your cells, you would see how much of a rebirth for them is. The first day of a new life. She forgets everything she’s been through, all her pain, and she finds the desire to fight again. ” The only thing I learned about the patient was that he (or she) weighed 70 kg. Normally, no data filters, but as we had a big difference in weight, the sample took place in two days instead of one, hence this information. I tried to visualize it, imagining a slightly thin man, a somewhat plump woman …
But, deep down, is it so bad not to know? There’s somebody somewhere in the world who, if he’s been healed of his disease, carries a little bit of me with him. And that still moves me, four years later. An invisible thread connects us. I’m not a believer, but sometimes I think of him, or her, as in a prayer, and I hope he, or she, is doing well. Donors are also called “life watchers”. I like the idea of having watched over, thanks to some of my cells, someone I don’t know.
To learn more about the procedure and the steps, go to www.dondemoelleosseuse.fr
