More On Selling Bone Marrow (EgoBlogging)
I meant to blog about this earlier, but I got distracted. The Daily Cal ran an article about people who sell either their bone marrow or white blood cells at Alta Bates for cancer research. The reporter interviewed me for the story, although she didn’t end up using any of my quotes, even though I was the one who suggested the article to her.
First, I wanted to note that the picture that goes with the article is someone having white blood cells removed, not bone marrow, as the machine that the nurse is looking at is the centrifuge that is used for the white blood cell procedure.
Second, the response of almost everyone who hears that I have had bone marrow extracted is to ask how it happens and if it is extremely extremely painful. And the article didn’t really answer of those questions. And since I have previously written a description of what it’s like when they remove your bone marrow, I’m including it below.
[WARNING: If blood, needles, or pictures of my ass would disturb you, then you should probably stop reading now.]
[Click on any photo to see a larger view.]
Here is the story of how I sold some of my bone marrow for 450 dollars. About a month ago I called up the Alta Bates cancer people and said I wanted to donate again. I came in and they drew some blood to test me for STD’s and otherwise make sure there wasn’t anything dramatically wrong with me. Although the bone marrow is being used for cancer research and not being put into a person, the researchers would rather be handling clean bone marrow.
Last Friday I showed up for my appointment. I got there at 2, and spent about 5 minutes chilling in the waiting room before they brought me back to my room. There was a hospital bed for me to lie down on, some Betadine, which is a disinfectant, and lots of little needles and vials and other hospital paraphernalia:
The Betadine is the crap that you can see smeared over my back and upper ass in the later pictures. I pulled my shirt up and my pants down and sprawled myself down. The next thing they did was inject me with Lidocain, which is like Novacain, but it’s for your skin instead of your teeth. Lidocain burns like a mother-fucker for about 4 or 5 seconds, and you start to go numb. I then spent about 5 minutes chilling ,chatting with the doctor while he let the Lidocain do it’s magic. The doc was getting all the instruments ready, and I was talking to him about the biotech company where my dad works. Also, my ass was just kinda hanging out, which I wasn’t nearly as self-conscious about as I probably should have been.
Next, the doctor took a big hollow needle and shoved it into my pelvic bone. This involved a kind of screwing motion, and applying an awful lot of pressure. Luckily, the Lidocain does a great job of numbing, and all I felt was pressure, like he was pushing on my back with a really blunt object. Here is a picture of pushing in the first hollow needle and a close up shot of the needle itself:
After that, the doctor threaded a smaller needle through that hollow needle down into my bone, and sucked out some bone marrow. The Lidocain only numbs down to the bone level, so when the doctor pulls out the bone marrow, it hurts really fricking bad. There was a sharp pain in my back where the needle went in, and then arcing pain running up my leg.
Each time the doctor did that he would remove 25cc’s of bone marrow. And since I was having 100cc’s extracted, he did it twice on each side. It got more painful each time he did it, until the fourth time when I knew it was over so I was so happy that I didn’t really notice the pain.
And when all was done, there was a big bloody mess of gauze and four vials of my bone marrow.
For those people interested in donating bone marrow yourselves, you can call 510-204-7826 and ask for information about donating bone marrow.
So if they ever come up with a cure for Leukemia, I’m taking part of the credit.
You’re commenting on this three weeks later? Lame.
Comment by Yung Alum — December 1, 2005 @ 8:39 am
Well, as long as we’re talking about that article…
I also described the process and what level of pain was with each step, but they failed to use it. Maybe it’s a daily cal policy of not putting in the most wanted info into an article, but that’s besides the point. I didn’t find the donation process to be all that painful, except that the second time I gave bone marrow they seemed to be in quite the hurry so they did not wait as long as they should have for the lidocain to take effect. While the bone marrow was being extracted, I could feel a tugging motion, as though the middle of my leg had a string being pulled through it. Felt unusual, but not really painful.
Comment by Ed Martinez — December 1, 2005 @ 8:56 am
I have a question. You get $450; how little could they pay you but still make it worth while to endure the procedure, assuming you were doing it solely for hte money?
Comment by McMike — December 1, 2005 @ 11:19 am
It depends on how much you’re in debt, how much money you’re willing to take to endure whatever painful process it is.
Comment by RepBast1984 — December 1, 2005 @ 11:21 am
The rule for medical studies tends to be “pay them as much as their time and pain are worth to the subject, and nothing more,” in order to avoid people taking risks for money and the like. (i.e. poor people need to get less than rich people) When doing such things, they have to target specific groups and set the pay accordingly. I’m not sure how different the donation process is.
Comment by Beetle — December 1, 2005 @ 12:19 pm
andy just wanted to make everyone look at his butt.
anyway while we are stroking andy’s “ego”, perhaps we can discuss the probability that this post refers to him.
Comment by mano — December 1, 2005 @ 2:13 pm
if they just want to take my blood and I look at the needle, I get this feeling below my sternum (like Bush eating the pretzel) and then will wake up after fainting, and it is trippy because often one feels time displacement, such as thinking you fell asleep in a class three months ago, then remembering the subsequent three months. so that is brave. You can even feel it looking at the photos
Comment by ow — December 1, 2005 @ 6:33 pm
The rates that they pay for bone marrow are as follows:
$125 for 25cc’s
$200 for 50cc’s
$450 for 100cc’s
Each 25cc that is drawn equals another prick of the needle, and another minute of the weird tugging feeling in your leg. I feel if you are doing it at all, do the most the let you do (50 cc’s the first time, and 100 cc’s the next month).
Comment by Ed Martinez — December 1, 2005 @ 7:40 pm
doesn’t that hurt after the anesthetic wears off, or what does it feel like?
Comment by ow — December 1, 2005 @ 8:07 pm
dayum s0n… $450 for lettin dem take some blood out of u? shiT kidz time to jump on daT bandwagon nomesayin?
-smashT
Comment by smashT — December 1, 2005 @ 11:47 pm
how long is this donation process from start to finish?
Comment by yungblud22 — April 14, 2009 @ 7:32 am
your ass looks like a baboon
Comment by kyle johanson — September 5, 2009 @ 2:50 pm
shit nigga mybe if we wasnt so damn gangsta id bust a cap ion that white ass shiorty. shit nigga. im black
Comment by kyle johanson — September 5, 2009 @ 2:52 pm