Would you donate?

You just found out that someone you know has leukemia or cancer of the bone marrow. Yes, bad things happen, even to good people. We live in a "broken world". The sin in this world has allowed for terrible diseases.

"But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear." ~Isaiah 59:2 NIV

But, what can you do? All you can do is try your best to make things better for glory of God. For starters, get registered with your local bone marrow registry. All it takes is a mouth swab and some paperwork. I believe there's a donation requested, but some schools and businesses will offer it, donations taken care of. The donations are needed for the testing necessary to determine your qualifications of who you are a match for.

The registry might call you if they find that you are a close match for someone who might need your marrow. There's further testing that the marrow registry takes care of. This helps determine if you are the perfect match or if someone else is a closer match.

After your initial decision to help someone you know, you may be the perfect match for that person or even someone you've never met. If you are a ten out of ten match, there's a physical and plans to be made for you to get to a closer hospital near the patient. The registry takes care of any necessary travel, like flights, lodging, etc.

You learn that the registry is trying to avoid taking marrow from the hip or back because it is painful for the donor and less effective. Nowadays, it's a matter of taking shots for a few days to increase stem cells. Then sitting or laying in the hospital for several hours while your blood is removed, it goes through a process of filtering out the extra stem cells, then placing your blood back into your system. Sounds like dialysis, huh? Quite similar, I suppose? This is a more effective way for the recipient and it is still in testing, but many have undergone thus far already.

Now, as the day gets closer and closer, anxiety kicks in because the process is something new. But, backing out now could have terrible results for the recipient.

Continue to keep healthy and... "Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves" as it says in Romans 12:10. In our sacrifice, we can save another, just as God sacrificed His one and only Son to save you and me.

"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life."
~John 3:16