Do it for the children!

Today I did it for the children. What you might ask? Endure 17 gauge needles, centrifuges, tubes, and of course munching on the occasional tums. Does this sound like your normal day of donating blood? It was anything but.

Let me introduce you to Apheresis. Apheresis is the process that blood centers use to obtain specific components of blood for use in specific purposes. So how did I get involved in this whole process? As some of you might remember about three months ago I donated blood as part of a normal blood drive. I gave what is called whole blood, or straight pull blood from your body. About a month later I got a letter from the blood center marked urgent test results. This is enough to get any guys blood pressure pretty darn high. It turns out I am CMV negative (CMV= Cytomegaolvirus). CMV for those of you not pursuing your medical degree, CMV is a non-harmful disease that most Americans have but can not be given in blood transfusions to children. Now even more detailed, Apheresis is a process that separates the blood into their prime components being either platelets, pure red blood cells or one other type (yeah I was a little out of it when this was explained). Platelets, being one of the most precious types, is used for cancer patients, specifically Leukemia patients since they can not make their own. These Platelets only last for about 4 days out of the body, but are usually used in less than two days they are in such high demand. There is almost always a shortage of them!

This process involves your blood being taken out of one tube, running through an amazing Rube Goldberg like machine with blood moving through multiple small tubes, reservoirs, 4 slow spinning turnstiles, and one fast centrifuge. Out goes the yellowish platelets while the remaining blood with a little saline is returned to your vein through the same tube. This process takes from start to finish more than two hours. So you walk into this room and from start to finish you are treated like a rock star. You sit in a standard dentist chair with their typical plastic pleather seats. Immediately you are given hand warmers, blankets, and heated chair pads. A set of noise canceling headsets are placed on your head and a choice of over 400 movies is placed on your lap for you viewing pleasure.

While you are donating they tell you that you might experience some numbness in your jaw. If this happens tell them. Of course 45 minutes into my donation I had that. No problem just munch on some tums for calcium and keep going. I will be honest you will feel the vibrations from the centrifuge rippling through your body and it does sometimes cause some numbness in different parts of your body, but you think of the children (insert awwww here!). 2 hours later you are all set, ready for some OJ, cookies, and a sweet young lady to book you for your next go around in 2 weeks. Actually you can donate in the worst case in 72 hours, but 2 weeks for your own schedule limitations.

So after my first time doing Apheresis I want to encourage everyone to check with your blood center and see if you are a candidate. This truly will make the difference between life or death in some of these Leukemia patients, especially the pediatric ones that need frequent infusions. So save a life, plus it looks good when you tell women you are donating to save the life of babies! :-)