Thursday, March 29, 2007

Blood Sucking Fiends

That's the book that comes before You Suck that I didn't read, so it didn't make as much sense as it might have. It in no way refers to the fact that my benevolent corporation gave me 2 hours off today (paid) to drive into St. Paul and donate my plasma at the American Red Cross. But that happened too. The apheresis was great and the needle mark is almost gone already (although it freaks Eryn out0. Mostly I got to sit there and read a book of essays on Brave New World for 2.5 hours (I had my lunch hour as well). Aileen the nurse was great, and took the time to explain what was going on with the machine and why I had little bags of blood hanging there that others did not (I was using one arm, not two, so they couldn't just route it back in; the platelets had to sit somewhere until the tube was available for going the other direction. They surveyed my available veinal estate and determined next time I can engage in the faster two arm action).

Two things: that bakery right next door, that's not cool. If I worked at the St. Paul Red Cross I'd be figuring out how to score a warm loaf of bread for lunch each day, cause damn does that ever smell delicious. Second, I'm not sure why Mean Mr. Mustard thinks you get all dizzy/weird about half way through and have to score Tums like some sort of smack habit, because the only time I felt strange was at the beginning and the end, when the binding agents and reintroduced platelets made the taste in my mouth suddenly change. I think it's the scifi he watches during donating that gets him all disconnected from reality. That, and he only donates because he thought "buffy coat" had something to do with Willow Rosenberg. But I really appreciate his wife getting me to come down and donate - that's a seriously good use of my two days of paid volunteer leave.

On an unrelated note, we finished off the family evening play three-way soccer with the big, orange exercise ball. According to Eryn I scored seis, plus an additional "mean" point for bouncing it forcefully off Pooteewheet's boob. Eryn came in second with one "real" point. And Pooteewheet took last with three "pity points". Sucks when your three year old is comping you multiple pity points.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I at onetime gave platelets twice a day to your aunt Joan. They just left the needle in my arms and taped them their so I could go back to work, then home for the evening. I did that for three weeks.