Donation

So I was planning on running the Frostbite Half Marathon next month, but I won't be able to, it turns out. Thats fine though. I think helping another person is more important.
While Wes and I lived in Charleston, we signed up for the National Marrow Donor Registry. They are responsible for finding matches for people in need of a bone marrow transplant. This was several years ago. We had forgotten about it. A few months ago, I got a phone call early in the morning (9am is early for me okay!) saying that I had been matched to a person with Leukemia in need of a transplant. Of course I said yes. How can you say no to someone who has cancer. Well, I've had to have blood drawn twice, filled out a bunch of paperwork and had a physical and now I'm set to donate bone marrow cells in mid-January. Kind of excited about it, and nervous as well.
Since I have a bulging disc, I can't have the normal extraction procedure (they insert a big needle into my hip bone and extract marrow directly from the bone.) I'm giving Periphiral blood stem cells which is the same thing, but a different way of extraction. I have to take a shot everyday for 5 days. This shot "pulls" marrow out of my bones and into my bloodstream. On day 5, I have to be hooked up to an apheresis machine that looks like a dialysis machine, except it pulls blood from one arm and extracts the marrow cells, then returns the blood to the other arm. Here's a link to more info.