See, I got a call from the blood people this week. Remember a couple of weeks ago? I donated blood at the university blood drive?
So this very friendly blood woman called and said, in a very nice way, "your blood sucks", or something like that.
Come to think of it, I think what she actually said was, "We ask that you don't donate to the blood supply anymore", which to me sounded like
"your blood sucks" or
"don't let the door hit you on the way out".
*sigh*
As she very nicely explained, women who have been pregnant, often develop certain antibodies. These antibodies have shown in recent years to be quite dangerous to certain people who have certain underlying illnesses when those certain people receive blood transfusions containing the antibodies.
By "quite dangerous", it means they usually die.
It's a rare thing, but to play it safe, the blood people throw out the been-pregnant-lady-antibody blood. She explained that the antibodies are of no harm to me, but I will have them for the rest of my life, hence the "don't come back".
Oh, darn.
I perked up when she said,
"But...
there is research being done to determine the cause of this particular reaction. Your blood would be useful for such research"
Oh, good!
"But...
there isn't any research currently being done in Colorado."
Oh, darn
"But...
there will likely be research in Colorado in the near future."
Oh, good!
She asked if I'd like to be added to a database of people willing to donate for research, and I said I would. So maybe all is not lost.
And I suppose if I have to choose between having my kids and being useful as a blood donor, it's an easy choice.
13 comments:
Interesting... I had never heard of that. (Look at you, ready to help science!)
I guess it's a relatively recent finding. Last time I donated, I had 3 kids and don't remember being asked about pregnancy.
Well, you TRIED to do good by donating blood. Nice that there's another way for you to be helpful.
The whole take-blood-from-someone-and-put-it-in-someone-else strikes me as kind of scary. It's good to know that, hopefully, the medical professionals are on top of things.
I'm pretty sure you could still donate plasma if you felt like giving up half a day to do it. I've gotten over the rejected by the blood bank a long time ago. They don't love me because I tend to be anemic and my dainty veins make the blood suckers cry. Glad the play went well :)
Not sure about the plasma thing. Seems I know more blood donor rejects than accepts for some reason. Makes me think there's a lot of bagged blood getting chucked to the trash.
They won't allow me to give blood, not that I'm contagious, but with my auto-immune system being so overly active it attacks ME, they don't yet know if it can affect others. Fine. I need all I've got. *sticking out my tongue* If I lived in Colorado, I'd at least be seeing if I liked cannabis or not. Lucky girl.
Oh c'mon. I bet you already know if you like cannabis or not ;)
Well it's comforting to know they're not afraid to say No. Fingers crossed that the research is soon available in Colorado so that you can return to your relaxing, blood giving afternoons.
Yeah, now where'm I gonna go to relax?
Interesting. Well, it's always nice to have an excuse not to have a needle jammed into your arm. For now.
;-)
My blood type is Be Positive! For reals!
I'm naturally positive too :)
Hah, and while i didnt ROTFL, i did chuckled reading this :)
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