Once upon a time in a land known as Sandy I decided to do what all the cool kids were doing and donate blood. It turns out, my height correlated with my weight minus a quart of the precious commodity of blood is not the best of ideas. Who would have thought? But, because of this experience I have been put in the big data base operated by the nice folks at ARUP. My name comes up from time to time and I get a friendly call in which involves a pleading ARUP employee asking for my platelets.
Here is some non-scientific but still slightly scientific jargon and facts for you to wrap your head around. Platelets are a part of your blood. Donating platelets is around a two hour process that involves extracting the blood out of you where is sent to whirl around in a machine and then recirculates non plateleted blood back into you. Also, you will commonly find a virus in people's blood. It isn't fatal like H1N1 (or some virus that later will become a big scare and I can look back at this blog and say called it), but its a virus that you are immune to if it is in your blood. This is a factor that complicates the process of transfusions, operations, or really anything involved in saving lives and all that entails.
Who has two thumbs and strange virus free blood? This chick.
This only keeps the good people at ARUP calling me. It is pretty cool because my blood, or in this case, my platelets are used to help babies and even cancer patients. As it is blood and platelets are in high demand. They are needed and as the lady on the phone informed me, they have been going through more then was originally expected. (Side note- you never realize how many people are in the need of blood on a daily bases. It is way too easy to get caught up in the thought that if you are doing well, so is the rest of the world. Its like hearing sirens on your birthday, the two just don't seem to match).
I would like to take a moment to say that this is not me trying to make a some what obscure reference to that one craze or series. I forget what it is called.
Maslow came up with this pyramid of needs. The theory here is that each level, starting with the base and moving to the tip, needs to be reached the top can not be reached without having mastered the other levels in order. The base is the need for physical things like food, water, and shelter. Next is safety like not getting hit by a car, third is the need for inclusion and social interactions, fourth is the need for esteem. This is the positive view of self and it doesn't hurt to get a little of the positive esteem from others as well. The fifth and final level is something called self-actualization. This is when you are your best self. It is a certain level of accomplishment that combines the fulfillment of the other steps with a sense of self and I have always imagined self-actualization being a positive experience. Picture it. See what I mean?
Well, donating blood is something that gets me a little bit closer to this self-actualization thing. It seems a bit ridiculous but knowing that my iron levels are up makes me feel good about myself. The lady testing my blood checked my platelet count from my last visit and mentioned that I had a good platelet count. Give yourself a pat on the back for that one. The man that was monitoring the machine right as everything was finishing up said that I had gone fast. He said that I must have a good vein. I don't want to brag or anything but you're welcome ARUP man.
Totally unrelated note, it is so crazy to see just a part of your blood sitting in a bag. Platelets are a tanish yellowish color. There's your fun fact for the day.
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