Doubling Down on Some Erythrocytes

After weeks of getting calls from the Red Cross about making a blood donation, I finally was able to make it to a drive.  The one going on to day was especially for CMW negative donors and until two weeks ago, I had no idea I fit into that category.  Have you ever heard of someone saying they are a "baby donor"?  Yeah me neither.  Basically it means that you have not been exposed to the cytomegalovirus (a flu-like virus in the herpes family).  Most people are asymptomatic and don't even know they have CMV.  One of the reasons why it is so important is that it is the preferred kind of blood for pediatric transfusions.  If young children are given blood with CMN, it can lead to some serious medical complications and even death.

 

While I was answering all of the preliminary questions, the tech asked if I was interested in doing a double donation (I fit the ht/wt/hemoglobin parameters and I also have A- blood).  A double whole blood is where they take two pints of red blood and give you back your platelets and plasma.  The best part is they pump you up with some saline so you do not lose all that volume (things they don't do with a normal donation.  They also use a smaller needle so it is more comfortable.  So in honor of all things SUS this summer, I decided to double down. 

Common side effect of double red donations: tingling lips - think of the feeling you get in your foot when it falls asleep.  Basically the quick and dirty reason (because we all know that you have no interest in the pathophysiology) is because of the anticoagulant (citrate) used during the apheresis collection; it causes a temporary decrease in ionized calcium levels.  The quick fix ... suck on some Tums which worked pretty quickly. 

You also can get kind of chilly as they pump the platelets and normal saline back into your veins (everything goes back in at room temperature which is about 30 degrees lower than your normal body temp), but the fleece blanket came in handy.  And before you ask: no this is not me, no this is not someone who was also donating blood.  He just has the face I would have probably made had I remembered to have someone take my picture. 

Want to learn a bit more about the process, check out this video 

(it was one of the better ones I could find out there).

Best part about the donation ... the snacks you get when you are all done.  This donation center had the best snacks going (trust me I have done this a time or two).

Fingers crossed, it won't mess me up too badly for the Sole of the City 10k next month.