Well it's been a while since I last posted, although I did manage to upgrade my blogging software.   Today I also managed to return to an activity I did before I became the at work road warrior for the past couple years.  I set up an appointment with the San Diego Blood Bank and went in for my regular donation.  Since I'm not going to be driving half-a-world away everyday I can start giving regularly which means I can start doing regular platlet donations.

Normally when someone gives blood you go in and get stuck with a needle.  Your blood then drains into a bag until they have a pint from you.  In the bag are 'red blood cells' (RBC), Plasma and PLatelets.  Then the blood bank separates those elements out of your blood to make the various units that a Dr. or hospital uses.  Your pint of blood yields less then a full unit of RBC and then they are forced to try and mix and match to get a unit.  Not to mention that alot of times people only need plasma or platelet transfusions and they can only get a small amount of each from your pint.  In all the process takes you about 20-30 minutes and you can't donate again for like 2 or 3 months.

A more modern model is for the blood bank to hook you to a machine which will draw your blood.  The more scientific name for this is 'apheresis' but what it comes down to is that the machine has a small centrifuge that separates the 3 main components of blood and the blood bank can then take the specific units they need, either Platelets, Plasma or Red Blood Cells.  There are a couple advantages to this:

• The blood bank takes a full unit (or units as I'll explain) of the product that you are donating. 
• Depending on what you donate you can donate far more frequently (platelets can be donated up to every 2 weeks)
• A platelet donation given in this manner gives as many platelets as are gotten from about 5 whole blood donations

So in my case today I donated one unit of platelets and one unit of red blood cells.  This is because it was my first time back in the system in over a year so they start with a single unit of platelets so they can determine your platlet count.  This means I can't donate again for a month, but at that point I can go back and make another platelet donation.  More importantly once they have processed this donation odds are good that since I'm relatively healthy they'll actually be able to take a double set of platelets from me.  In that case because your body can quickly replace platelets (unlike red blood cells) you can donate two units every two weeks. 

Now of course there is a cost to using the machine so the blood bank always wants to take 2 units of something when they hook you to the machine.  That's because all of the stuff that touches your blood from the tubes to the sleeve that fits in the centrifuge is disposed when you are done and that costs money, but remember they are getting 5 times the standard platelet donation.  Platelets for those of you who are unaware are critical for certain cancer patients.  For some people who aren't ready to commit to giving platelets the blood bank will take a double shot of red blood cells.  The key is that because everything is measured and you are only donating a portion of whole blood the blood bank gets two full units from your single donation (and gives credit for the same). Thus in a month when I go back if I can't give two units of platelets, I'll give a unit of platelets and a unit of plasma (since I won't be eligible to donate red blood cells again in a month).

So what's it like being hooked to the machine and how long does it take?

The old machines required 2 needles one in each arm, the new machine uses one needle.  The key is if the machine is only collecting say platelets but your blood has 3 components, how do the other two come back to you... the answer is that after your blood is separated in the centrifuge, the parts which the machine isn't keeping are mixed with an agent to keep your blood from clotting and then pumped back into your body.  The most amazing part of this experience (and I've always used single needle machines) is feeling a cool flow of 'blood' back into your arm when the machine is returning your blood.  This occurs several times, I would say that after about 40 seconds to a minutes the machine spent about 20 to 30 seconds returning a portion of blood to me before taking the next batch.

As for the time required, well today I spent 48 minutes doing my donation on the machine.  This was probably double what a regular donation would take, and excludes the time spent before the donation for the screening or after the donation having a donut.  That's pretty much common and an improvement from a couple years ago when it would take about 90 minutes to donate platelets.  All told a small price to pay for a procedure that directly helps cancer and chemotherapy patients.  As a cyclist who has a yellow Livestrong band, I consider this the ideal way to help in the fight against cancer.  Those that know me know that I've lost both my Father and Sister to cancer (Esophageal and Melanoma).

There are many people who give blood to get free blood tests, first let me say please don't and more importantly don't offer to participate in something like this unless you can get through the screening process and apply the 'use my blood' sticker to your form.