Life of Wry

I’m a blood donor. It’s one of the easiest things… and has such amazing, tangible, immediate benefit to people in need, sometimes dire need. That’s cool. I was sort of relieved when they told me my veins were too small to give platelets, only because that’s not as easy. It takes a few hours — nearly two of which are hooked up to a machine — and just seems like a much bigger deal. But a few months ago, one of the techs dispelled the myth of my small veins and thought I’d be a good candidate, so I acquiesced and did a platelets donation. I’ve probably bragged about this before. LOL.

They were so enormously thankful.. onsite as well as in follow up emails and voicemail messages. Really.. it was embarrassing how effusive they were. But it worked! I decided to do it again. My second appointment ever to give platelets was today.

You go through the same rigamarole as when you give blood — a lengthy questionnaire, a pin-prick blood draw to see if your iron is sufficient (ouch), the collection of other vitals, chit chat — then they hook you up, which takes a fair amount of time, as well. Platelet donators get heated blankets for the legs, heating pads for shoulders and forearm, and a heated bean bag to hold. One gets cold donating platelets.

Anyway, we go through all that and about 30 minutes in, the needle site really hurts, but I don’t say anything. The machine alarm goes off a couple of times and they make adjustments, and I just carry on. But on the third alarm, the tech looks under the towel at the needle site and says, “oh dear, it’s bruising,” and discontinues the whole operation. Somewhere along the line — due to small veins, likely — the needle poked the wall and stuff was leaking and this is not a good thing. It’s not earth shattering, but it stops a donation.

The good news: they collected enough platelets for maybe a baby.. so my effort was not for naught. And maybe the other good news — sorta — is I’m not a good candidate for platelets.

This is what platelets look like:

Gross, huh?

What they do is, they drain your blood into some collection vessel, the machine extracts the platelets (right there on the spot), and returns your blood to you. Not really sure how that’s done with a single needle prick… maybe a special needle? In any case, platelets are yellow.

The good part about donating platelets is you leave the center with the same amount of blood you came in with .. which is less a physical drain for people. So they say.

Still: I prefer giving whole blood.. so it’s back to that.