Ihsahn_

How does it feel to be voted 'Sexiest Astrophysicist Alive'?

As someone who volunteers to get people to sign up to the register over here in the UK, I can answer this one.

What OP is doing is called Peripheral Blood Stem Cell collection, hence the username. He/she is donating stem cells, which are originally produced in the bone marrow but migrate to the blood after the injections/shots OP received, G-CSF (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Granulocyte_colony-stimulating_factor).

The blood is removed in a process very similar to giving blood, apart from the fact it takes longer, and the blood travels through a "filtering machine" to take away just the stem cells before returning to the body via the other arm (otherwise you'd lose all your blood!).

Marrow harvested from the bone (from the hip) is commonly believed to be a painful procedure, but it's actually done under general anaesthetic (at least in the UK it is) and is therefore painless. When you wake up, those that have donated via this method have reported slight soreness and lethargy but this is nothing major and clears within a couple of days. As per any operation, I'm sure it would hurt if the donor wasn't under general!

I'm not sure about the stats in other countries, but about 90% of the donors over here donate via PBSC as per OP, and only 10% via the operation. This is usually upon the patient's doctor's recommendation.

And they're great. Check out the one from near my hometown: one massive roundabout with loads of mini roundabouts by it:

http://i.imgur.com/VpVb6.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/ARQRv.jpg

Called the Magic Roundabout

You're welcome, and I'm glad to hear your son is doing well! Fingers crossed it never returns!

I would check that it's not different in your country; I can only speak for the UK's practices. It looks like this is the link for you - http://www.blood.ca/CentreApps/Internet/UW_V502_MainEngine.nsf/page/E_ubmdrPKG-intro?OpenDocument&CloseMenu - but I'd definitely check about the processes before you sign up. We encourage everyone to be committed to going through with the process before signing up - whilst it's an average of 1 in 1000 chance of an individual being asked to sign up, if you are that 1 and you decide to back out, there are financial and ethical implications. The process of analysing your tissue type from the saliva sample, keeping you on the database etc. costs ~£100 per person (which is obviously a lot to a charity!). As well as that, the patient may be informed there is a match before and preparation may begin for the transplant (isolation etc.)

It would be a shame for all that to happen and then the person pull out!

But yeah your Dr. should know.