organ donor?

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rooni
rooni Member Posts: 135
edited June 2014 in Young With Breast Cancer
Hello,
this may be a stupid question but ive never thoughty top ask my onc.On the back of my drivers license from years ago i had made the choice to be an organ donor.So it is marked yes there.
but during a conversation not so long ago, i was told that since the bc diagnosis i am not able to donate organs or blood.Does anyone know about this for sure. I mean it kind of makes sense but its not something ive ever thought about before. so ive never asked onc.

If anyone knows please let me know.
Thanks
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  • floss
    floss Member Posts: 57
    edited June 2007

    I was told no organ donation or blood ever again.

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  • ADK
    ADK Member Posts: 2,259
    edited June 2007
    Hi,

    You should check with the donor organization. I know that people with certain cancer dxes that are treated and remain NED for 5 years after the completion of treatment can donate blood.
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  • BethNY
    BethNY Member Posts: 2,710
    edited March 2008

    You cannot be an organ donor. Some states allow you to donate blood after 10 years.

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  • litig8or
    litig8or Member Posts: 54
    edited June 2007
    Oh---This is going to make me cry. I've never been a blood donor b/c I had Hodgkin's when I was 15. Now, I'm Stage 3 BC and it never occured to me that I can no longer be an Organ Donor. I have always, always wanted to be an organ donor and to think that when I die, maybe just maybe someone else will live.

    This sucks.
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  • maiolo
    maiolo Member Posts: 45
    edited June 2007

    oh drats! i guess i'll be chipping-away that dot on my id now.

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  • rferraris
    rferraris Member Posts: 191
    edited June 2007

    From what I understand your organs cannot be used as "life saving" but can go toward research. A family member's mother had her entire body donated to science. I would contact a medical school. I'm sure they would be able to advise you. I donated platelets prior to my dx and now the Red Cross won't stop calling me. I have told them three times that I had cancer and was undergoing chemo. They still call and I continue to tell them they don't want my blood anymore!

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  • BethNY
    BethNY Member Posts: 2,710
    edited March 2008

    you can donate your body to science-- absolutely. There was a talk about it here a very long time ago. Someone was saying make sure you know the organization, and what exactly it will be used for-- I think its a cool idea.

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  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Member Posts: 1,376
    edited June 2007

    I was turned away from donating blood when I started on tamoxifen, it's now one of the meds on the list that prevents you from donating.

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  • LisaAlissa
    LisaAlissa Member Posts: 1,092
    edited June 2007
    Don’t give up! According to DonateLife.net
    Quote:

    Anyone can be a potential donor regardless of age, race, or medical history.

    Emphasis added!

    Each kind of tissue donation involves different results. The United Network for Organ Sharing (“UNOS”—the non-profit organization that administers the U.S.’s only Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network)—says

    Quote:

    Are there age limits or diseases that rule out organ donation? For any death where organ donation is a possibility and consent is given, there will be a medical assessment of what organs can be recovered. There are no absolute age limits to organ donation. A handful of medical conditions will rule out organ donation, such as HIV-positive status, actively spreading cancer (except for primary brain tumors that have not spread beyond the brain stem), or certain severe, current infections. However, for most other diseases or chronic medical conditions, organ donation remains possible.

    Unfortunately, many people never indicate their wish to donate because they believe, falsely, that their age or medical condition would not allow them to donate. If you want to save and enhance lives through donation, the most important action you can take is to share your donation decision; if donation is not medically feasible, that determination will be made at the time of death.


    They only flatly say they won’t take tissue if you have actively spreading cancer! If you think you might want to donate, let that assessment take place at the time of death—that way, you don’t foreclose options!

    Organizations that handle blood & marrow have slightly different guidelines:

    Health Guidelines for National Marrow Donor Program provide that
    Quote:


    If you have a history of pre-cancerous cells, you will be able to register to become a potential volunteer donor. If you have had cured, local skin cancer (basal cell or squamous cell), you are also able to register. Persons who have healed cervical cancer in situ, breast cancer in situ, or bladder cancer in situ are also able to register. (In situ cancer is diagnosed at a very early stage and is specifically called "in situ.") If you have had any other form of cancer, including melanoma, you are not eligible to become a volunteer donor - no matter the length of time since your treatment or recovery.



    American Red Cross posted guidelines provided as of 5/27/07 that:
    Quote:

    Eligibility depends on the type of cancer and treatment history. If you had leukemia or lymphoma, including Hodgkin’s Disease and other cancers of the blood, you are not eligible to donate. Other types of cancer are acceptable if the cancer has been treated successfully and it has been at least 5 years since treatment was completed and there has been no cancer recurrence in this time. Some low-risk cancers including squamous or basal cell cancers of the skin do not require a 5 year waiting period.

    Precancerous conditions of the uterine cervix do not disqualify you from donation if the abnormality has been treated successfully. You should discuss your particular situation with the health historian at the time of donation.



    There appear to be a few drugs that the Red Cross considers to be absolute bars to donation, but they say that:

    Quote:

    In almost all cases, medications will not disqualify you as a blood donor. Your eligibility will be based on the reason that the medication was prescribed. As long as the condition is under control and you are healthy, blood donation is usually permitted.

    (The few drugs listed on their site as bars to blood donation don't include most of the commonly mentioned drugs on this forum.)

    As my refrigerator magnet says “Don’t take your organs to heaven, heaven knows we need them here.” If they can’t be used, they won’t be. (I’ve been on the national donor marrow registry for years—and called them after I was diagnosed, since I didn’t want to give anyone for whom I might be a match false hope. That’s when I found out that DCIS can be “ok” for that—but, again, they would evaluate at the time.)

    The UNOS link at the top of this post is to a Q&A which also includes good info and links to info on whole-body donation as well as other tissue donation organizations.

    HTH,

    LisaAlissa
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  • junie
    junie Member Posts: 1,216
    edited June 2007

    Great post! There has been so much controversy over this question--cannot get one clear answer from any source. I renewed my driver's license last week, and sadly, removed the donor annotation. I guess I just figured that with with all the unknowns, the debate over the quality of any of my organs or tissue would take so long that nothing I had would be of any use. I'll for sure change my license if the issue ever becomes clear over who/when/how long/what is ever made clear! hugggssssss

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  • Methusala
    Methusala Member Posts: 285
    edited June 2007
    myword are you ladies reading my mind??
    I just told my son today (who is my second in command on my health care proxy!!) to REMEMBER that I am an organ donor!
    I had no clue I couldn't donate if something happened to me.
    wow.
    I see their point, but just another dig lol good grief..
    should I laugh or cry?
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  • LisaAlissa
    LisaAlissa Member Posts: 1,092
    edited June 2007
    GMC, don't change your instructions to your son, just alert him that they will have many questions about your health/medical records if they ever need to evaluate such a donation from you. You may want to consider whole-body donation as an alternative, if they can't use any of your organs (remember that having had cancer doesn't disqualify you from organ donation). So be sure that you don't eliminate yourself as a candidate for organ donation...let the UNOS people do that, if necessary.

    If you wanted to look into a whole-body donation alternative, the UNOS link in my post above includes this:
    Quote:

    How does whole body donation differ from organ donation? How can I get more information?

    Whole body donation for research is handled differently from organ and/or tissue donation for transplantation. Often such arrangements are made through individual medical schools. There are a number of Internet resources that describe whole body donation, including the University of Florida's site on Body Donation Programs in the United States.



    HTH,

    LisaAlissa
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  • goodrhue
    goodrhue Member Posts: 60
    edited June 2009

    bumping this up - see LisaAlissa's comment on June 22, 2007.  I checked all the links a few weeks ago and the information has not changed.

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  • EGAL
    EGAL Member Posts: 539
    edited July 2009

    I have donated my body to Brown University Medical School.  I was an organ donor but even if I could now, I wouldn't.  I cannot bear the thought that if I had and the recipient got cancer. 

    I have a phone number that my family has to call immediately after my death, and (it is almost comical) I have to be no more than 45 miles from Providence, RI when I die and if  Brown can not accommodate me ie. they have too many bodies, I have to make other arrangements.  In either of those two cases, I will just be cremated by our local funeral home.  I hope I can help the medical students learn about cancer and hopefully do some research on the dreaded disease.

    Ellen

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  • Marple
    Marple Member Posts: 19,143
    edited July 2009

    I too have donated my body to the hospital where my niece went to become a Dr.

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  • cherneski
    cherneski Member Posts: 726
    edited July 2009

    My body will go to science.  Since I can not be an organ donor, I will help some other way.

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  • Analemma
    Analemma Member Posts: 1,622
    edited July 2009

    I have donated my body to the medical school at Cleveland Clinic (where i go for tx).  I have a card with a phone number to call when I die.  I've also given the information to each of my sons.

    There was a thread on the palliative care forum a couple of months back.

    I was told when I first was dx that I could no longer be an organ or blood donor.

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  • 3monstmama
    3monstmama Member Posts: 1,447
    edited April 2010

    Wow! I just uncovered this post when I was googling to find out if what I read on another post here about not being able to donate is true.  it made me so so sad.  I have now checked the Red Cross website and the organ donation website and their policies do not seem to have changed since the orginal post.

    thank you thank you thank you.  Donating for medical research is nice but giving someone the gift of sight and a kidney or a functioning liver is even better!  Smile

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