Blood and Platelets
Today, I went downtown to give blood again. I confused the hell out of those people.
First of all, the lady couldn’t figure out that it was OK for me to give platelets last month. She literally freaked out on me, insisting that I couldn’t have donated platelets last month. I held the position that if I wasn’t able to, why did they do it? So she went and talked to someone in the apheresis area, and was corrected. Apparently, there’s little communication between the apheresis area and the whole blood area, and there aren’t a lot of crossover donors like me. In most cases, people give whole blood only, or platelets only, or plasma only, or double red only.
The upshot is that there is an upper limit on red cell loss that is allowable over an 8 week period. However, if one plans it correctly, every 8 weeks, you can give blood, and halfway through, you can give platelets. It’s a bit of a juggle, but not that difficult once you get it down.
It did leave a bit of a bad taste in my mouth, though. I was almost ready to just walk out in frustration, but I didn’t. After all, it isn’t the idiot who’s asking me questions about my travel history, sex history, and basic health. It’s about the people who I am trying to help out by donating. It’s a small price to pay for trying to do good for some people who need it.
