New experience

Yesterday I donated platelets for the first time. It was really interesting in a slightly alarming way. It is like magic the way that they cycle blood out of your body spin it to extract the platelets and then put it back in, all through the same needle. Very clever. I gave enough for two people, and it was meant to take 88 minutes. However I ended up on the blooming machine for 99 minutes as my body didn't process the chemical well enough.

That was something that I was really curious about. How can they keep blood outside your body without it clotting? Surely if it didn't clot then the platelets wouldn't be doing their job and would not be worth taking. The answer is that they mix your blood with an anticoagulant which then goes back into your body and is broken down straight away. Only that's what mine didn't do as quickly as it was going back in. Every time the blood was returning I had a feeling like when you put tissue paper over a comb and blow on it - bizarre tingling feeling. Very strange, so they lowered the rate at which it went back in and it all went away. It was amazing really.

So now the greedy platelet people have got me giving every month! Oh dear. Still having looked after women who needed platelets I think it's a good thing to do.