Donor story: quick, painless & all kids accounted for...

I have a first-hand account from Mike Berman who attended the "Gift Of Life" bone marrow donation drive last Sunday in San Francisco for Bonnie:

Traveling to the festival in the Yerba Buena Gardens this past weekend in San Francisco left me somewhat nervous about an unfamiliar medical procedure and really nervous about losing one or more of my children accompanying me. Upon our arrival, we asked the chain-smoking information booth attendee where the "Gift of Life" group was. His puzzled look and lack of familiarity with the map left me unsure as to exactly what type of information he was there to provide - he certainly demonstrated no discernible knowledge about the general festival purpose, people or geography.

Luckily, we soon ran into the Krieger family, a very welcome sight, in front of the booth. Charlie, who has a huge crush on Tracy, the mother Krieger, hid his face in my leg to avoid blushing in front of the object of his affection. Sarah encouraged Tracy to sing and I scrambled to review the clipboard that someone shoved into my hands.

I quickly wrote everything that I knew or felt like inventing about my medical history (I don’t really seem 6’2” but as long as no one was measuring . . . ) and sat down at one of the crowded tables. As a heavily-accented woman attempted to explain the steps that would produce another entry into the bone marrow donor bank, the Israeli rock band stepped up their Hebraic assault on my ears. (Funny, I am now becoming a crotchedy old man in two languages.) Due to the noise, my poor grandmotherly volunteer was forced to pantomime rubbing long Q-tips in various parts of her mouth. To someone not familiar with the process, it appeared the volunteer was playing charades, attempting to have me guess a movie about a chopstick tonsillectomy.

But the process was quick, easy and painless, leaving my hypochondriac nature without any ammunition. I taped up my swab samples to the card, sealed my envelope and said a prayer for Bonnie as I left the booth. Oh, and I returned home with the same number of kids with which I started the day.

Hilary, one of the coordinators for the drive, reports that there were 232 donors added to the bone marrow transplant registry that day. Betsy Berman (another coordinator) confirms that, yes, all her kids made it home with her husband that night.