Oh well in that case! Donate platelets, it’s a 2 hour nap!

Oy, you need that blood yourself right now! You’re making a whole person from scratch. While running after the first batch! And expecting a blood loss event, even when all goes well. Which, ✨✨✨good witchery it will.

You can probably ask them to put a note in your file to defer calling you until the baby is safely delivered and you’ve had a few months to recover. And have them take you off the platelet list, because your schedule isn’t going to be any less hectic. There’s plenty of ways they can use whole blood, like for trauma or surgery or hemorrhage. So the cancer ward’s loss is emergency’s gain.

I give a regular pint of whole blood (A+, CMV-) because the anticoagulant for platelets makes me ill. And I sign up for the next appointment on my way out, so they don’t call except to remind me.

Well done you!

Yes! I donated at UCLA this weekend and they have the new machine too. It’s nice, because often that fingertip prick has hurt more and longer than the big needle. My hemoglobin was a little low on my left thumb, but he did it again with my right thumb and I passed.