Bone Marrow. It's in me to give...

Almost 5 years ago I added my name to the Canadian (Blood Services) Unrelated Bone Marrow Donor Registry. I never really gave it much more thought than that until they called last week and said I had been identified as a potential donor. Today I had a telephone "health assesment" interview and early next week I go for blood tests to determine just how close a match I am.

I have no idea who the intended recipient is, or where they might live, or even what's wrong with them - and there's a good chance I never will know. For now I can only hope that when all the testing is finished that my DNA is a close enough match for them to use my bone marrow. That could take a month, maybe a bit more, before we know.

In the meantime I feel oddly aware of every choice I make that impacts on my bodily health, almost like when I was pregnant and a life depended on those choices. I sopose such a heightened level of awareness can only benefit me in the long run regardless of what happens. There were actually very few restrictions I had to agree to for the next 6 months, most of them easy to make, like no tatoos/peircings, no new sex partners, no IV Drug usage, etc etc. But I felt bad when I told Duncan that I had to agree not to get pregnant for six months (or until this is over). We've been talking about it alot lately, talking leads to planning and planning leads to dreaming... and he looked so sad when I told him.

But 6 months isn't really that long in the grand scheme of a lifetime. Or, in this case, two lifetimes.