Marc
New member
I had the day off yesterday to have a speaker repaired in my car that was still under warranty. So I putzed around Wormtown for the day, ate breakfast at the Kenmore, walked over to the WPI campus and hung out there for a while. Then I went to the donor center in the Biotech complex for my appt.
Platelet pheresis is similar to donating whole blood, although it takes longer and they use a needle in each arm. The prep work is the same, they give you a general good bill of health and sit you down in a nice comfy heated chair. The heat is because they return room temp. saline to one arm for a short time which can chill you off.
Once the needles are in and all the plubming is set up, they draw out of one arm and put the blood through a centrifuge. Your platelets are spun out, your plasma is collected separately, and then your red cells are returned mixed with saline in the other.
It was pretty easy if you don't mind needle sticks, which I could care less. With one in each arm though, you can't itch or scratch anything which isn't bad unless you think of that fact. Then you immediately have an itch somewhere.
But it was worth it. You can donate every two weeks, unlike every two months with whole blood. I have another appt. in three weeks to go back again. I recommend it, the platelets mainly go to leukemia patients who have low platelets counts from chemo treatments. I love charity like this because it is so easy. Big bang for the buck, so to speak.
:beer:
Platelet pheresis is similar to donating whole blood, although it takes longer and they use a needle in each arm. The prep work is the same, they give you a general good bill of health and sit you down in a nice comfy heated chair. The heat is because they return room temp. saline to one arm for a short time which can chill you off.
Once the needles are in and all the plubming is set up, they draw out of one arm and put the blood through a centrifuge. Your platelets are spun out, your plasma is collected separately, and then your red cells are returned mixed with saline in the other.
It was pretty easy if you don't mind needle sticks, which I could care less. With one in each arm though, you can't itch or scratch anything which isn't bad unless you think of that fact. Then you immediately have an itch somewhere.
But it was worth it. You can donate every two weeks, unlike every two months with whole blood. I have another appt. in three weeks to go back again. I recommend it, the platelets mainly go to leukemia patients who have low platelets counts from chemo treatments. I love charity like this because it is so easy. Big bang for the buck, so to speak.
:beer:
