Platelets Resumed
One thing I forgot in my summary of new post-vaccine activities was giving blood again. I've gone to give platelets three times, and been accepted twice. In all cases I went on a weekday, using four hours of "Volunteer Time Off," a work option that has existed for some years, but that I've not previously tapped.
In the nearly 2.5 years since I last donated, the blood donation app on my phone has seen some significant updates. As a result, I can tell you that my lifetime donations via the Red Cross (whole blood + platelets) has been come to 33 gallons and 5 pints. Whole blood donations are a pint apiece, and platelets range from 1-3 depending on plasma and other factors. I started giving platelets back in 2014 and the vast majority of my donations since then have been platelets, but I also cleared 10 gallons in whole blood donations. I even have a pin somewhere.
A side effect of all these donations is that I have quite a substantial number of Red Cross t-shirts, to the point where I could wear a different one every day for a week without any trouble. And that doesn't include the knit cap, or any of the t-shirts that were so ugly that I immediately donated them onward. I would have turned them down, but you don't mess with the ladies who volunteer at the Red Cross. If they say you're taking a t-shirt, you're taking a t-shirt.
Beyond the shirt, I am also on a plaque. You can donate platelets as often as every week under the right conditions, and every year the center I donate at has a target number for platelets donations. For 2019 the target was 18, which I blew past, so my name is on a plaque now. I actually knew this in 2020, but the plaque hadn't arrived before the world shut down in March, so I didn't actually see it until yesterday.
I inherited this behavior of donating blood from my father, who was a longtime blood donor until his iron dropped too far to consistently give. Hopefully my iron levels will stay up high enough to get me to 50 gallons.
Quite aside from the societal value (I joke that giving blood is the only socially useful thing I do), having 2-3 hours to read is kind of glorious. Quite a few of the Shakespeare resolution books were read while strapped to the platelet machine. Right now I'm working on the third of Caro's "The Years of Lyndon Johnson," Master of the Senate, having read the first two parts of on sabbatical.
In the nearly 2.5 years since I last donated, the blood donation app on my phone has seen some significant updates. As a result, I can tell you that my lifetime donations via the Red Cross (whole blood + platelets) has been come to 33 gallons and 5 pints. Whole blood donations are a pint apiece, and platelets range from 1-3 depending on plasma and other factors. I started giving platelets back in 2014 and the vast majority of my donations since then have been platelets, but I also cleared 10 gallons in whole blood donations. I even have a pin somewhere.
A side effect of all these donations is that I have quite a substantial number of Red Cross t-shirts, to the point where I could wear a different one every day for a week without any trouble. And that doesn't include the knit cap, or any of the t-shirts that were so ugly that I immediately donated them onward. I would have turned them down, but you don't mess with the ladies who volunteer at the Red Cross. If they say you're taking a t-shirt, you're taking a t-shirt.
Beyond the shirt, I am also on a plaque. You can donate platelets as often as every week under the right conditions, and every year the center I donate at has a target number for platelets donations. For 2019 the target was 18, which I blew past, so my name is on a plaque now. I actually knew this in 2020, but the plaque hadn't arrived before the world shut down in March, so I didn't actually see it until yesterday.
I inherited this behavior of donating blood from my father, who was a longtime blood donor until his iron dropped too far to consistently give. Hopefully my iron levels will stay up high enough to get me to 50 gallons.
Quite aside from the societal value (I joke that giving blood is the only socially useful thing I do), having 2-3 hours to read is kind of glorious. Quite a few of the Shakespeare resolution books were read while strapped to the platelet machine. Right now I'm working on the third of Caro's "The Years of Lyndon Johnson," Master of the Senate, having read the first two parts of on sabbatical.