As you probably know, some cancer treatments cause a loss of platelets. These blood cells help control blood clotting. When platelet levels fall too low, patients are given a transfusion of platelets to replenish their supply and to prevent life-threatening hemmorrhages. Some patients (especially those who have had a bone marrow transplant or who are being treated for leukemia), my require DAILY transfusions for several weeks. Since the average lifespan of a platelet is around 8 - 10 days, a steady supply of these life-savers needs to be on hand.
This brings up the reason for this blog. I've had two friends lately who have had leukemia and had to have platelet transfusions. It caused me to think that I should probably find out more about platelets and see if donating them was something I could do. Since I already donate whole blood regularly at our local Red Cross, I asked them about it. They were pleased to tell me about it, how the donating process works, and encouraged me to do it.
The process is very simple. During the actual donation, you sit in a comfortable recliner, and a carefully monitored machine draws blood from one arm, through sterile tubing into a cell separator centrifuge. The blood stays inside the self-contained sterile tubing and never comes in contact with the machine. After the blood component(s) have been collected, the rest of the blood is returned to the donor through the same arm or the other arm. It's a safe process — the collection sets and needles are sterile, used once for each donor and then discarded. Donors usually relax, read, or enjoy a movie during the donation.
So, yesterday I went to the Red Cross, excited to save some lives. I chose the movie I wanted to watch (The Illusionist, starring Edward Norton and Paul Giamatti), got comfortable in the recliner, started the movie and held out my arms for the two pretty ladies to do their magic. (Get it? "Their Magic." The Illusionist. Never mind.) Since I had headphones on, I couldn't hear their conversations as they prepped both my arms by cleaning and swabbing and tapping on veins and re-cleaning and asking me to squeeze a ball in each hand, and more vein-tapping and finally a couple of pin pricks in the arms.
I assumed all was going well, when they interrupted me and said that the vein that was supplying the blood wasn't working very well, so they needed to try another vein. They went through the tapping, poking, rubbing, cleaning process again and stuck the needle in.
Again, I went back to my extremely interesting movie. Just 2 - 3 minutes later, they interrupted me again. They said that the second vein wasn't working and that we would have to let my arms heal and try again in a couple of weeks.
So, after a half-hour of nonsense, I was sent home, without donating any blood or platelets and only a few minutes into what I thought was going to be a great movie.
Now you know all I know about platelets and the difficulty of donating them to the Red Cross, when there are only a couple of pretty girls there to poke your veins. Pretty, but not competent in vein poking. They told me that when I come back, I should make sure this one other girl, who wasn't there yesterday, is working that day. She is, apparently, a great vein poker.
I won't give up. They need my platelets.
