Big BIg BIG Oops.

As many of you know I donate platelets every two weeks in a process called aphaeresis. This is where they put a needle in your arm pull blood out run it through a centrifuge take out the platelets and then put the rest back. To keep this procedure safe they emphasize over and over and over and over do not move your arm. For two hours this needle is in your arm pulling and pushing blood at high pressure.

Well today was my 2 gallon mark (keep in mind when you consider you can only do 2 pints of platelets at a time) and so they had a little celebration going on in celebration. Well I was exceedingly tired and since I am going to be in this nice warm chair for two plus hours it is a perfect time to take a nap. Now I have slept before during this procedure without any problem, but this time was a little different. I fell asleep watching Toy Story and ended up having some crazy dream, maybe falling into REM sleep, I wake up with a start and jerk my needle arm all the way across my chest.

Three nurses run over in a panic, alarms are going off all over the machine, suffice to say I woke up very very quickly. They did an emergency shut down on the machine, however not before a whole bunch of blood was pushed back in except instead of the vein into the muscle itself. They pulled the needle but extreme pain and one hell of a bruise started to form. I felt SOO bad not really for the pain but for really causing so much angst with all the nurses, this is not something they like to see happen. Well I left and somehow drove home but now I am sitting on a couch with a ice pack on the arm and extreme pain right in the bicep muscle. Note to self next time I plan on falling asleep have them tape down the arm just in case.

Ouch ouch ouch ouch!