Where 101 turns south

Discovery Bay is an unincorporated community in Jefferson County, sitting near the intersection of US 101 and State Route 20 at the foot of the bay it is named for. George Vancouver named the bay in 1792 after the Discovery, a ship used in his expedition through these waters. For the walk it is a hinge rather than a destination: State Route 20 heads northeast toward Port Townsend, while US 101 turns south and stays south, down the long western side of Hood Canal. Everything from here is the leg home.

Because this is a plain point on a highway, it is worth spending on the thing most people get wrong. "Bone marrow donation" for the large majority of donors is not surgery at all. Ninety per cent of donors give blood stem cells through PBSC donation: five days of filgrastim injections beforehand to move blood-forming cells into the bloodstream, then apheresis through an IV in each arm — blood drawn on one side, stem cells separated out, everything else returned on the other. Most PBSC donations take four to eight hours and are completed in one session, though some need a second, and NMDP puts typical recovery at one to two days.

The other ten per cent donate marrow itself. That is a surgical procedure, done under general anesthesia in nearly all cases, in which doctors use a sterile needle to withdraw liquid marrow from both sides of the back of the pelvic bone. Donors are usually back to a normal routine in two to seven days. Which method is used is decided by the patient's doctor, who selects whichever offers the best chance of success for that patient — not the donor, and certainly not anyone standing beside a highway.

One more practical thing, because it stops people who would otherwise say yes: NMDP pays for all donation and travel costs, including medical appointments and the donation itself, flights, hotel stays and meals for the donor and a companion, and missed pay from work, pet care and childcare. The Jada Bascom Foundation does not collect cells, does not perform HLA typing and does not decide who is eligible. It tells you this is what the process looks like, points you at the registry that serves where you live, and then gets out of the way.