Sunday, February 22, 2009

It kinda hurts...

I donated platelets for the first time on Saturday.
Have you ever done that??
2 hours and 45 minutes of being extremely cold.
And I was tired the rest of the day.
And they left a mark on me.
That is my arm.
It's swollen and bruised and feels like it may never heal!

But they tell me it's hard to come by platelet donors.
And it truly wasn't that bad to give.
I read and ate popcorn and drank a soda.
They treated me like royalty and begged me to come back.

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5 comments:

Beckysblog said...

Um, your arm looks horrible!!!

I tried in college, but I walked into the place and turned right around. It was very dirty and did nothing to make me feel safe.

priscilla joy said...

Oh, Cassie I am so sorry that happened!! That is a huge bruise. I know this sounds so stupid but, what is platelets? =)

Cassie said...

You can give platelets at your local blood center. They set you up like they are taking blood and then they hook you up to an apheresis machine. You blood goes thru the machine and separated out into plasma, red blood cells and platelets. It keeps your platelets and puts the rest back in you. It's very interesting. They use them mostly for leukemia patients. Your platelets are only good for 5 days after you donate them. They said they go through them all...they never have to get rid of any. They are always in need of more.

Courtney said...

wow. that looks awful. but AWESOME that you did that!

Melanie said...

Wow! I think being cold is the part I would not like the most!