WELCOME

..and here are a few things to keep in mind:

This blog contains mostly my poetry and a few thoughts from time to time. The thoughts will be entered when and wherever I feel necessary to keep things in proper order. Thoughts and things not belonging to me will be denoted with asterisks. Poems will be archived by the date which they were written, not by that which they were posted. I tend to update things a month or few after being written so as to keep current issues from wandering unattended around the web.

Enjoy...

[somberlife was first created July 11, 2004]


“The difficulty of literature is not to write, but to write what you mean; not to affect your reader, but to affect him precisely as you wish.”
~ Robert Louis Stevenson


Monday, January 14, 2008

*Bone Marrow*

Some time last spring Smiley and Drew decided to go to a blood drive and donate. I tagged along for lack of a more interesting afternoon. While there, on a short and random spark of goodwill towards mankind, I opted to sign up to be a bone marrow donor. I debated with myself for a bit and almost decided not do it, but in the end, I went ahead and signed up with the National Marrow Donor Program.

Insert now -many months later- a lady calls my house and tells my mother that I have come up as a match in their database. My mom, not really sure about what she wants, takes her number instead of giving her a way to contact me.

I talk to my mom on Friday and she informs me that I have been matched and the recipient will be a 61 old male. This is all the info I get. My first thought is that I would be more supportive if it were a young person with a lot of life left to live. My next, and quite deeply felt, thought is that this is the age of my father. Despite 61 sounding old, I look at my parents and realize that someone of this age (having taken care of their health) can also still have a lot of time left.

I wait till Monday and call the lady, Bobbie, back. Explaining who I am she sounds a little surprised, perhaps that I actually called back. With a little relief on my end, she explains to me that they are not after my marrow just yet. I am A match, not necessarily THE match.

She gives me the option of remaining in the program from this point to see how well I do match or, because I am a college student, she tells me I can choose to be suspended from the database until later if I would like. I chose to stay.

They will be doing more testing and may have to draw some blood to continue in the search to see if I am the best match or not. I have no idea how many options are available to this man. It may be many. It may be few.

I should be contacted again some time in February for an update of where things are. IF I am decided as the best match I will find out around April and the procedure will not happen till the beginning of the summer.

I do not have any idea how this will turn out. But it shall be interesting for sure.
I will post updates as I know things.

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