Nix on blood and organ donation

Even if you can't donate organs,
you can get a cup, pin, or shirt to
raise awareness about donor needs
at the Donate Life America site.

April is National Donate Life Month, and that might be a good time to remind those of us with ET that we should probably NOT be signing up for organ donations or giving blood, though, as always, check with your doc first.

The American Cancer Society offers cancer patients interested in donation some general donation guidelines, and the rule of thumb seems to be that you are not a good candidate for organ donation if you have an "active" cancer. ET and other MPNs are always "active" because they're chronic and there is no cure.

ET can also affect the liver, spleen, and bone marrow, so those tissues might not be healthy enough for donation.

While it's rare, cancers from donors have shown up in recipients. Researchers think that this could be because many recipients have to take anti-rejection meds, which lower their immunity and perhaps make it easier for the transmission to occur.

So, to keep everyone healthy, blood and organ donations are probably off the table for us.

The good news is that you can still support donation and medical research in other ways:

1. Volunteer to work at an an organ donation sign-up event. My college has a yearly bone marrow donation registration drive, and I'm happy to use class time to let the students sign up. They fill out a short form, the tech takes a cheek swab. They're back in class in five minutes.

2. Volunteer to help at or publicize a local blood drive.

3. Make financial contributions to the American Red Cross or your state/local organ donation organization.

4. Wear a Donate Life pin if you've got one. A co-worker whose husband had a heart and kidney transplant gave me one years ago, and I still wear it throughout April. Many people ask me about it and several have talked to their families and signed their donor cards. (Michigan makes it easy to indicate your willingness to be a donor by signing the back of your drivers license.)

5. Donate your body to medical science. The Huffington Post has a great informative essay on the how-to's of body donation. This idea used to give me the creeps, but, dammit, I've got a really rare disease, and I ought to be interesting as hell to some young medical student who wants to "look into it" in depth. Plus, whatever school you donate to (you do have a choice) will cremate you and return your remains to your family at no expense. So, if you have cheapskate tendencies like me, you can save your family a bundle "when the time comes."

Be well!

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