Giving Platelets... *edited*

...has been harder than I thought it would be. Before my cancer surgery in 2007, I had been a regular blood donor--whole blood, not platelets. During that time, I had heard about 'apheresis'--a way of donating platelets, but I never did it. After my surgery, when I went in to the Red Cross Donation Center in SC, I was told that I had to wait five years and be cancer-free during that time to be eligible to donate blood in any form. Didn't make sense to me, as they took my blood *before* the cancer was discovered and I didn't get radiation or chemotherapy. But I figured 'rules are rules' so I didn't donate. Then we moved to MD, Tom got his new job--where he doesn't take his personal cell phone so he refers a lot of calls to my number. The Red Cross called for HIM to donate platelets and convinced me to do it, too, since they will accept me as a donor here. That's the back story. I have donated twice, and it didn't go well either time. I just felt lousy through the whole process, which takes like two and a half hours, total, with over an hour of actual donation time. Both times, the technicians suggested "maybe this isn't for you," and the most recent time they only took half what they usually do. So today we are trying it one more time. If I still feel lousy, I will go back to donating whole blood. Which still helps, by the way, you just cannot do it as often. So, I guess God will be deciding how he wants me to donate blood today.

*So. God wants me to donate whole blood, and he made darn sure I understand. I was feeling a little nervous before the process, but I did really well most of the way through. I concentrated on relaxing my arms and legs because they have a tendency to tense up during the donation, and I breathed deeply, and took the calcium they offered me. I started feeling a little bad with just eleven minutes to go. I said I could stick it out. I couldn't. With just two minutes left, I suddenly felt so bad all over -- I told one of the technicians. Suddenly, four absolutely lovely women were flapping around me...well, flapping isn't the right word. They were very controlled and organized and solely interested in helping me. They stopped the apheresis process and started saline, the video player with the movie I was watching was removed, the couch was tilted back, a bucket arrived because I said I was nauseous, I got wet paper towels applied to pulse points, blankets were removed, somebody brought me a cold drink, I asked for a cold cloth behind my neck. Someone prepared ice in a paper towel--it helped so much! So, it was decided for me that I should go back to donating whole blood. And I will!