Plateletting
So my platelet donation thing yesterday was fun.
Some people are squicked out by this stuff, so I'll put it behind
Got to my appt at 12:30. We did the medical history part of the thing, and they cleared me for go (hemoglobin was 15.2, btw-- a low for me). Then they had me pick out a movie (Million Dollar Baby is what I ultimately ended up watching).
I told the guy who was prepping my stuff, "I've never done this before, so you just let me know if I need to do anything" and he laughed and said, "I never done this before either." Great way to instill confidence, but... he was mostly joking.
Asked what arm I normally like for bloodletting, and I said my left. So he came to my right arm (I got terrible veins in my right arm), cuffed me and poked around for a while. The guy couldn't find anything, so he called his friend over, who also couldn't find anything, but then she noticed the veins in my hand, and said, "well, that'll do. Nice looking vein right there!" and slapped my hand a few times to make the vein come to the surface.
They put the needle in, which was hooked to this big machine. She adjusted my hand so it was sitting flat and told me not to move it. The saline was cold and my hand, subsequently, was also cold. I forgot about it after a bit though. The movie helped (everyone got their own screen and headphone set right in front of them!).
The guy looked for a vein (I've got a good one on that side), found it and put the needle in. Actually, I didn't even feel the needle go in, so that was good. Then the blood flow was shite, so the woman who did my hand came round and started adjusting it, apologizing the whole time, but it didn't hurt or anything.
So she starts rubbing my arm, and moving my hand around, and she gave me a different sort of a squish to squeeze, and all these things, and ultimately they had to cut the machine down because I wasn't bleeding fast enough.
She explained that the machine processes blood at a certain speed, and because I wasn't bleeding at that speed, it was creating a vacuum. And that was a bad thing. Eventually, though, they got it all figured out. I just have small veins.
They kept asking me if I wanted a blanket, and at first I said no, but then the lady was like, "it can get a bit chilly just laying here, especially with your blood all outside your body like this. Are you sure you don't want a blanket? They're heated!" So I said yes, and it did feel good.
Then I watched the movie for a while, and when the movie was over, they were ready to get me taken care of. The guy took the needle out of my left arm, and held pressure on it, while he cleaned off the iodine and blood (there was a lot of blood around the site), then he wrapped it up.
Then he went around to the other side, took the needle out, and wrapped my hand (he was gonna use tape, and I was like, 'uh uh, I'm not ripping tape off my hand!"
Then he opened the machine and took out a small sack from inside the centrifuge. It contained my platelets. He said they have to re-suspend the platelets in plasma or else they die, so he shook the little sack strongly for a while, and then hooked it up to a different part of the machine, which fed the platelets and plasma into a bag.
It was then that I noticed that they had taken plasma out too-- about 550mL of plasma, to resuspend the platelets in. Well, that does explain all the saline. Anyway, he got them all mixed, and then told me I was free to go to the cantine for a snack.
Which I did. They had all sorts of sodas and juice and every sort of sweet snack. I got a ginger ale and some m&ms. They had stickers available, you know-- the "I gave blood today" type ones, but they said, "I recycled life today. Platelet donor." I almost took one, but I didn't.
The funniest thing to me was the sign that they had at the labeling station. It said, "SILENT-- please avoid excess chatter in this area. The safety of the blood supply is of utmost importance!"
Anyway, then they gave me my $5 gas card, and a first time donor gift, which turned out to be a cute little lunch sack that says American Red Cross on it. Inside was a magnet and a pin. Very cute.
So, the experience wasn't so bad, but it took a long time. They said to plan for 2 hours (donation is supposed to take 70 minutes), but I didn't end up leaving until almost 4pm, because of how slow I was bleeding. Apparently, I was right near the cut off for it being useable, because there was some discussion about it.
So I went and did my other stuff for the day, and around 8 (4 hours later), I took the wrap off my arm because Eric and I were going to go for supper, and... wouldn't you know, it started bleeding again! Stopped right quick though.
And that's my experience with platelet donation. I'll probably do it again, though I think I need to work out so my veins will be bigger next time.
Some people are squicked out by this stuff, so I'll put it behind
Got to my appt at 12:30. We did the medical history part of the thing, and they cleared me for go (hemoglobin was 15.2, btw-- a low for me). Then they had me pick out a movie (Million Dollar Baby is what I ultimately ended up watching).
I told the guy who was prepping my stuff, "I've never done this before, so you just let me know if I need to do anything" and he laughed and said, "I never done this before either." Great way to instill confidence, but... he was mostly joking.
Asked what arm I normally like for bloodletting, and I said my left. So he came to my right arm (I got terrible veins in my right arm), cuffed me and poked around for a while. The guy couldn't find anything, so he called his friend over, who also couldn't find anything, but then she noticed the veins in my hand, and said, "well, that'll do. Nice looking vein right there!" and slapped my hand a few times to make the vein come to the surface.
They put the needle in, which was hooked to this big machine. She adjusted my hand so it was sitting flat and told me not to move it. The saline was cold and my hand, subsequently, was also cold. I forgot about it after a bit though. The movie helped (everyone got their own screen and headphone set right in front of them!).
The guy looked for a vein (I've got a good one on that side), found it and put the needle in. Actually, I didn't even feel the needle go in, so that was good. Then the blood flow was shite, so the woman who did my hand came round and started adjusting it, apologizing the whole time, but it didn't hurt or anything.
So she starts rubbing my arm, and moving my hand around, and she gave me a different sort of a squish to squeeze, and all these things, and ultimately they had to cut the machine down because I wasn't bleeding fast enough.
She explained that the machine processes blood at a certain speed, and because I wasn't bleeding at that speed, it was creating a vacuum. And that was a bad thing. Eventually, though, they got it all figured out. I just have small veins.
They kept asking me if I wanted a blanket, and at first I said no, but then the lady was like, "it can get a bit chilly just laying here, especially with your blood all outside your body like this. Are you sure you don't want a blanket? They're heated!" So I said yes, and it did feel good.
Then I watched the movie for a while, and when the movie was over, they were ready to get me taken care of. The guy took the needle out of my left arm, and held pressure on it, while he cleaned off the iodine and blood (there was a lot of blood around the site), then he wrapped it up.
Then he went around to the other side, took the needle out, and wrapped my hand (he was gonna use tape, and I was like, 'uh uh, I'm not ripping tape off my hand!"
Then he opened the machine and took out a small sack from inside the centrifuge. It contained my platelets. He said they have to re-suspend the platelets in plasma or else they die, so he shook the little sack strongly for a while, and then hooked it up to a different part of the machine, which fed the platelets and plasma into a bag.
It was then that I noticed that they had taken plasma out too-- about 550mL of plasma, to resuspend the platelets in. Well, that does explain all the saline. Anyway, he got them all mixed, and then told me I was free to go to the cantine for a snack.
Which I did. They had all sorts of sodas and juice and every sort of sweet snack. I got a ginger ale and some m&ms. They had stickers available, you know-- the "I gave blood today" type ones, but they said, "I recycled life today. Platelet donor." I almost took one, but I didn't.
The funniest thing to me was the sign that they had at the labeling station. It said, "SILENT-- please avoid excess chatter in this area. The safety of the blood supply is of utmost importance!"
Anyway, then they gave me my $5 gas card, and a first time donor gift, which turned out to be a cute little lunch sack that says American Red Cross on it. Inside was a magnet and a pin. Very cute.
So, the experience wasn't so bad, but it took a long time. They said to plan for 2 hours (donation is supposed to take 70 minutes), but I didn't end up leaving until almost 4pm, because of how slow I was bleeding. Apparently, I was right near the cut off for it being useable, because there was some discussion about it.
So I went and did my other stuff for the day, and around 8 (4 hours later), I took the wrap off my arm because Eric and I were going to go for supper, and... wouldn't you know, it started bleeding again! Stopped right quick though.
And that's my experience with platelet donation. I'll probably do it again, though I think I need to work out so my veins will be bigger next time.