Not a mad cow

Yesterday we went in to the local Red Cross blood center to fulfill a little goal of mine.

We'd tried to give blood as a group back on 9/11. It seems everyone else in our area had exactly the same idea, so the blood center was swamped, and since my type O+ sister was pregnant (with Liam) and could not donate, and none of the rest of us had especially useful blood types, they told us to come back another day.

The next time I tried, they'd put the Mad Cow disease restrictions in place. I had spent a quarter abroad, which meant, I thought, that I was no longer eligible to give at all. I felt downhearted, but consoled myself that my type AB+ blood could only be used by 3% of the population anyway.

However, while having a conversation with my friend Katie, who works at a blood center, I learned that, while AB+ isn't that useful as whole blood, it is actually the universal donor for platelets and plasma (components of blood). Once I heard that, I had to see if there was any possible way for me to donate. (After all, platelets are used to help cancer patients, and this could be one more thing I could start to do in honor of my Finny.) NB: I believe that AB+ actually is only the universal donor for plasma, although there is conflicting info on this online.

So I wrote to my overseas center to see how much time I actually did spend in England. The response I got back was crystal clear: quarters are always exactly 11 weeks long. I was safe by a week!

I thought I would see if I could get DH to donate blood at the same time so we could make a morning of it. He was reluctant at first, and finally admitted to a fear of needles. But after some negotiation, we struck a bargain, and he agreed to give it a shot.

Yesterday was the day. We both passed the screening, so he headed to the general area to wait to donate blood, and I went off to give platelets. I will spare you the details as I know some people don't like to hear about medical things, but I will just say my experience wasn't too much different from giving regular blood, except that it took longer. DH was able to go and drop off a box of Linus quilts with our coordinator while I was still lying back in my comfy chair watching the movie they'd set up for me.

When I was done, I walked over to see DH talking with one of the receptionists. They were talking about the next time he was eligible to donate - seems he had gone ahead and started booking his next appointment on the spot! Apparently he not only got around his fear of needles this one time, but has moved past that fear for good! :)