Platelets Donation

I've been donating whole blood for a few years now. I recently, around August or September of 2009, started donating platelets too.

I actually went to donate platelets this past Valentine's Day, which is also my birthday. Don't get me wrong though, I didn't do it for the great feeling you get knowing you saved someone's life by donating, but in this particular case I did it because the guy that called me to set up a donation actually said these words: "I was told to harass you until you agreed to donate on Valentine's, because it's your birthday and the nurses like to do something special." To this, my reaction was "Umm .... Ok ..." But knowing that my girlfriend recently started working there, what I was thinking was that she wanted to do something special for me that day, since I knew she had to work that Sunday.

And yes, when you donate Platelets, you have to set up a schedule, since it takes about 2 hours from the time you get there to the time you leave, you can't just walk in and do it. They have 2-3 scheduled times to donate platelets. I usually like mine at noon. This time it was setup at 9:00am.

Well, it all started well and good. The pinch in your finger to check the hemoglobin, which is the thing I hate the most in the whole process. It always makes me feel sad that diabetics have to do this more than once daily! The CBC test to check your platelets count. The questionnaire, which I know by heart now lol. Selecting the movie you want to watch during the donation, since I had forgotten to Red Box a movie the day before. I selected The Fountain, which is one of the few I hadn't watched in their collection. What a weird movie!! But that's for another blog.

At this time, when I was waiting for a chair to start the process, since ironically they were all full, I chose to drank a juice, and the nurses came to sing Happy Birthday with a cupcake, which was really nice by the way. At this moment I wasn't surprised, but actually felt 'let down' since I was expecting more, not from the nurses of course, but from my girlfriend. But I shrugged it off and remembered we had decided to celebrate Valentine's on the 13th and my Birthday on the 15th.

Now comes the Apheresis Machine ... This is where they insert the data from your CBC, and the machine calculates how many platelets they can remove from your body without you dying hehe. It also calculates the time the process will take. In this instance, it took 110 minutes!! By that time my movie was over, and so was the movie on the chair next to mine. Then comes the injection of the needle that has three adjoining tubes, one for taking you blood, one for giving you back the leftover blood after removing your platelets, and one for anticoagulant. Not terribly painful, again I hate the-finger-hemoglobin-pinch more. What was painful was that when there were around 36 minutes left over in the process, my hand fell asleep, and you cannot move it during the whole time, therefore the reason why it fell asleep lol. Those were painful 36 minutes.

Anyway, at some time during this process, I see my girlfriend running around, which isn't normal since she is usually in the lab. At this time I start thinking: "Mmm, maybe there IS something going on ...". Lo and behold, the supervisor and nurses AND my girlfriend come to sing me Happy Birthday with a nice chocolate cake in the form of a heart! This cake even had Nutella somewhere between the cake and frosting! I have to say, It was more than I expected :D

Thank You Bebe for making that day very special for me! And actually the whole weekend!