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Anyone living with Essential Thrombocythemia with JAK2?
Blood Cancers & Disorders | Last Active: 3 hours ago | Replies (491)Comment receiving replies
@dwilson072516
Hi.
If your husband does not have the JAK2 V617F mutation, which is commonly associated with Polycythemia vera and other myeloproliferative neoplasms, he may be eligible to donate blood at a standard blood bank.
Primarily managed by organizations like the American Red Cross and America’s Blood Centers.
Replies to "@dwilson072516 Hi. If your husband does not have the JAK2 V617F mutation, which is commonly associated..."
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@swalex
This is definitely something dwilson could ask the Red Cross about.
I believe she'll be told NO. Having no clue my blood wasn't normal, I had donated blood every 8 weeks for years.
But once I had a diagnosis, the Red Cross told me I could never donate again.
Why? No one knows if it's safe to give blood from someone with an MPN to someone without an MPN.
Within the last year or so, a commenter on this forum angrily reported that he'd contracted ET by receiving blood from someone with ET after his heart surgery. Before his surgery, his platelet count had been normal. Afterwards, it was sky high.
Since nobody knows what sparks MPNs, who can say why that poor man now has ET? The stress of his heart issues? A blood transfusion from someone with ET?
The Red Cross screens donated blood for many things, but not for MPNs.
Knowing it's possible my blood could harm someone, I took myself off the organ donor list too.
By the way, I'm MPL-ET, not JAK2-ET. The Red Cross never even asked me what kind of an MPN I had, just told me it would no longer be safe to donate blood.
Those with PV do have regular phlebotomies; every drop of their blood is discarded.