It only took four years

It has been a long time since I made a post about my Apheresis donations. Every two weeks I go to a Red Cross blood donation center and donate platelets. It is similar to giving blood, except they filter my blood. This way they only collect the platelets and let me keep everything else in my blood.

I reached a big donation number, so now is a good time for an update. Since the blog does not have too many pictures of me standing around holding stuff, here is me holding the plaque and pen they gave me.

This is a closer picture of the pen. It is engraved 200 Apheresis Donations and has my name.

While I reached 200 donation units in July, it took a while for them to get the pen engraved. Since I am blessed to have platelet rich blood, when I make one trip to the donor center the Red Cross can extract three units of platelets.

Normal whole blood collections usually need ten minutes or less after the needle is inserted. This process takes around 90 minutes. The good news is they have it setup so apheresis donors can watch a movie to pass the time. Back in the days of February 2011 when I published my last post, I had just watched The Town and received my plaque for 100 donations. Since then, I have made many trips and seen many movies as I donated. In the order I watched them, they are:

Salt; RED; Unthinkable; The Illusionist; Changing Lanes; Casablanca; Love and Other Drugs; The Incredibles; Get Him to the Greek; Rango; No Strings Attached; Unknown; Source Code; Bridesmaids; Limitless; Groundhog Day; The Ides of March; Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang; Friends with Benefits; Drive; Moneyball; The Descendants; J. Edgar; American Gangster; Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby; Somkin' Aces; The Punisher; Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close; Today you Die; Man on a Ledge; The Expendables; Blunt, The Fourth Man; The Italian Job; The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo; and Lawless.

Sometimes donations do not go perfectly. Since I have been to the center 39 times in the last two years, small things are bound to happen. Once I got a hematoma and another time I got a bruise (which led to follow up phone calls asking if I was OK) from needles that did not stay in the veins.

I went in to donate on New Year's Eve. However, they could not accept me because my temperature was too high. It was 99.6 degrees and the maximum allowed is 99.5. I have been deferred for too high a hear rate, but never before for too high a temperature. Whatever the temperature's cause was, I was just fine. I did not feel sick nor did I develop a fever afterwards.

I bring all of this up because I want you to think about what you are doing to help the people around you. This is a project that works well for me; what are you doing to make the world a better place?

Being Matched, Extra Espresso, and the Triple Digits

When I went to donate platelets last week there was a problem. My blood pressure was too high and I had to be deferred. My reading was 146/102, while the highest allowed diastolic is 100. This was most likely caused by my weight lifting an hour before I went in. I was so dejected by my high blood pressure I went to Starbucks and drank a venti caramel macchiato with an extra espresso shot. I felt much better after that. Since I was only deferred for a day I returned the next day and was able to successfully donate.

Since my last aphereis post I made three trips to the Red Cross. The movies I saw included Elf, Wedding Crashers, and The Town. While the first two have been around for a while if you have not seen The Town I would recommend it.

The exciting thing is for all three of these donations I was pre-matched with a specific patient. The staff had received a request for platelets of a specific blood type. Since I fit the description and had an appointment I was matched. I also saw the forms and know I was requested for the same person all three times.

In October I donated my 100th unit of platelets. However, they just managed to get this made and delivered to me last week. As of this month I have been doing this for two years.


I mention this in the hope you will be inspired to so something good. You could donate whole blood or convince a friend to do so at least twice before I hit 150.

Movies at the Red Cross and a Shocking Grade

Now for the latest installment of my apheresis appointments at the Red Cross. Since the platelet donation process takes around two hours, they have movies available for watching. The ones I saw included:

• The Ghost Writer
• L.A. Confidential All I will say is go watch this movie.
• The Terminal
• Inglorious Bastards Better than the average kill Nazis movie. A couple of days ago The Simpsons did a scene combining this movie and Dumbo. It starts at 11:25 of this video.
• Cinderella Man There is a point when the boxer (Russell Crowe) is completely broke. As a last resort he goes to the public assistance office for money to feed his family. Later when his fortune turns around he goes back to the office and returns the money he was given with interest. Unfortunately his attitude of giving back is in short supply today.
• Atonement This movie left me sad and wondering how long it will be until everyone learns making assumptions and lying can have very bad consequences.
• Die Another Day It was the twentieth James Bond film and contained references to all of the previous ones. I have seen every Bond film except The Man with the Golden Gun
• Forgetting Sarah Marshall This movie was recommended to me by the girl who broke my heart. We had the same sense of humor and she knew I would like it. If you need a reason to see it I have three words: Dracula Puppet Show.

Radar Project
As a follow up to my post yesterday, this evening I got some emails from UCI. The instructor for my class posted a grade for my term project, final, and the class overall. For the final 95%, for the term project 95%, and for the class A. I was shocked. For my project I was expecting a C or at best a B-.

My only explanation is the paper write-up was great enough to cover up my programming failure. I followed the directions the instructor gave and included everything he wanted, even if I though it was pointless. I had great block diagrams to explain what I was doing and nicely formatted equations.

Some Red Cross Answers

As I have said before, I donate platelets through the Red Cross on a regular basis. Every time I go I am asked a set of questions. They are the same set for anyone donating whole blood or platelets. My answers are almost always the same.

First, I say some basic information such as my name, address, phone number, gender, and weight. Then, I acknowledge I read the educational materials, ask any questions that arose from it, and say I never donated under a different name. Next, there is a check of my physical condition. My blood pressure, iron level, heart rate, temperature, and skin condition are all checked. Eventually, I get to answer questions on a computer. I click Yes, No, or Skip for each question. I have done this so often, I know what my answers are:

EDIT: I got questions 1 and 5 switched. The corrected version is below.

1 Yes (Are you feeling healthy and well today?)
2 No
3 No
4 No
5 Yes (Have you read the educational materials?)
6 No
7 Skipped by computer
8 Skipped by computer
9 Yes (Within the past 8 weeks, have you donated whole blood, plasma, or platelets?)
10 No
11 No
12 No
13 No
14 No
15 No
16 No
17 No
18 No
19 No
20 No
21 No
22 Skipped by computer (Since I indicated I am a male, I am not asked if I am pregnant)
23 No
24 No
25 No
26 No
27 No
28 No
29 No
30 No
31 Yes (From 1980 to 1996, where you a member of the United States military or a civilian dependent?)
32 No
33 No
34 No
35 No
36 No
37 No
38 No
39 No
40 No
41 No
42 No
43 No
44 No
45 No
46 No
47 No
48 No
49 No

The Yeses for questions 9 and 31 raise flags. The first one is resolved when the technical looks at my chart and determines my last platelet appointment was two weeks ago or more. The second question about the military is answered when I explain that during my entire lifetime my Dad was stationed in the United States.

Since the donation process takes around two hours, I get to watch one of several movies they have available. The latest movies I saw with comments on a few of them are:

• Sherlock Holmes


• Surrogates I am one of the worst people when it comes to judging movies, acting, and all aspects of film making. However, if they had spent a few minutes developing the characters so I would actually know and care about them the movie would have been much better.


• Crazy Heart


• Alice in Wonderland I have not read Carrol's books nor had I seen a movie adaptation of the story so I had no idea what to expect from the story.


• Sin City I liked this best of this movie bunch.


• Little Miss Sunshine


• Cop Out Better than I though it would be based upon the trailers I remember seeing before it came out in theaters. In interrogating a suspect, a police detective portrayed by Tracy Morgan starts using famous lines from different movies to scare the person into talking. While this happens his partner played by Bruce Willis is watching from the observation room and commenting on these impersonations. My favorite exchange:
  Tracy Morgan: "Yippee-ki-yay, motherfucker!"
  Bruce Willis: "I've never seen that movie before."
  If you are not familiar with John McClane, you are missing out on some great stuff.

If you donate platelets at the right place you too can watch movies.

I have new pants

I have had five appointments since my last Apheresis update.



Each of the cups is from a different appointment I had to donate platelets. The books they are on top of have been sitting around my room. In the background are red sweatpants I received in the mail earlier this week. I got them for being an Apheresis All-Star from my donations last year.

Now for some short commentary on the movies I saw during my appointments.

• District 9 After a few years, people (even with scores of aliens to work with) still can't learn anything about an alien ship over Johannesburg.


• Zombieland A great example of what to do and not do in a zombie situation. Beware of dangers like having your hair brushed over your ear.


• Everybody's Fine Obviously nobody is fine, but everyone has some issues.


• Up in the Air I kept expecting Clooney's character to be fired.


• Angels & Demons Did anyone think of turning off the electrical grid dozens of sections at a time instead of one by one?

When I went to my Up in the Air appointment, there was something new. A plastic shield was placed between my finger and the medical person for the iron test finger stick. I asked her if they had any problems with blood splatter and she had not heard of any. This first time a splatter shield was used also happened to be the first time my finger had to be pricked twice to get enough blood for the iron test. As always I had enough iron.

Two more appointments and a Saturday session

Since my last apheresis update, I have had two more platelet appointments.

The first appointment was exceptional for the speed at which the technician asked me the questions and did the examination of my vitals. Name, address, temperature, blood pressure, iron level, answer questions, sign here, and I was on to the actual blood draw in no time. This was the fastest of the 30+ times I have gone through this.

The second appointment was superior because of the movie I watched, (500) Days of Summer. I enjoyed it more than National Treasure: Book of Secrets from a fortnight before.

At the beginning the narrator states "This is a story of boy meets girl. But you should know up front, this is not a love story." I am going to steal this line the next time I relate certain events from my own life.

While I do not have a sister, if I could I would adopt the sister from the movie, Rachel. I love her combination of humor and insight throughout the movie. For example:

Rachel: Better that you find this out now before you come home and find her in bed with Lars from Norway.
Tom: Who's Lars from Norway?
Rachel: He's some guy she met at the gym with Brad Pitt's face and Jesus' abs.

That other session

The Saturday session I attended was about CPR. It was put on by the Huntington Beach Fire Med program. It covered CPR and choking for infants, children, and adults as well as using an A.E.D. machine. While I hope I will never have to use any of these skills, the A.E.D. looks like fun. Slap the electrodes on and let the machine be loud, annoying, and do the work. If you want to know what I mean, take a class like this and you will get the idea. However, if you don't use the machine correctly, you could turn a bad situation into a much worse one; electrical shocks can set pacemakers on fire.

I signed up for a couple of CPR class last year, but they were cancelled because too few people signed up. Now I know what to do in an emergency and have a card certifying my knowledge for two years.

Three ways to measure the posts I did not make

For a while I had a regular feature where I posted every time I made a platelet donation. As my last post on the donation topic was over three months ago, a lot of appointments have passed without comment.

I could measure this time by how big my cup pyramid has grown. Every time I make a donation I save my cup from the canteen.



I could talk about all the movies I have seen when I donated for the last few months:

Gran Torino Clint Eastwood yelling at people

Munich Track down and kill people who killed people

Nick and Nora's Infinite Playlist Everyone wants to find Where's Fluffy? They should look on MacGuffin Street

Star Trek The fourth of the eleven Star Trek movies where a time distortion is a big deal

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen The explosions are gratuitous, but here is a good exchange:
"Where are you going?"
"I'm going to get you a tighter shirt"
"They don't have one, we've looked"

Monsters vs. Aliens The monsters are coming to Modesto!

There is one other way I could measure how often I have made apheresis donations. Last week they gave me this.

Two weeks later

On Tuesday I had another appointment with the Red Cross to donate platelets.

The movie and numbers are:

Catch me if you Can
BP: 130/70
Machine time: 91 minutes

One of the great moments in the movie is when the no nonsense by the book Agent Handratty (played by Tom Hanks) tells a joke. I will not repeat it here, but if you want to watch the YouTube clip, do so at your own risk.

Afterward I picked up some things at Costco and then stopped at 7eleven. I was going to get a Slurpee, but the cherry flavor had the do not use light lit up. As I know from personal experience, this light should be heeded. Instead I had a mocha iced coffee, which I recommend.

If you want to donate blood with the Red Cross, go to www.givelife.org and make an appointment.

When you give blood, you are told to refrain from consuming alcohol for 24 hours afterward. Do not try the drink below on the same day as a donation.

Penguino

This is the recipe I had written down in my log:

1.5 oz gin
1.5 oz triple sec
fill with tonic water
cherry

However, the first half dozen recipes I found on Google had run instead of gin. I must have written it down incorrectly or found a little known variant. My suggestion is to try it both ways and decide which one you like better.

Apheresis again

On Monday I donated platelets.

Some statistics include:
Blood pressure: 110/60
Machine time: 79 minutes (or maybe 85)
Movie: Live Free or Die Hard

The notable thing is the Oreo cookies available afterward were in packs with 6 cookies. In the past the packages only had 2 each.

I have been keeping my cup from the last few times I donated. My collection is slowly growing.

Apheresis, also known as platelets

I have close to a dozen different ideas for posts. They have been planned out to varying degrees in my mind. I will start with one from today.

For the last five months, I have been donating platelets through the Red Cross. My blood type of A is the universal platelet donor so the people at the donation center talked me into trying platelets, also called an apheresis donation.

Today was one of my biweekly appointments. Donating platelets is similar to donating blood. Both start out with the same set of questions asked and blood pressure, pulse, and iron levels checked. For the actual procedure two needles are used, one in each arm. Through one side blood is taken out and sent to a machine. This separates the platelets which are collected from the plasma and other blood components which are then returned to the donor through the other arm. The processing can take between 70 - 100 minutes of being hooked up to the machine. Since it takes a while, you can select a movie to watch while it is happening.

The numbers for today are:
Blood pressure: 120/70
Movie: Fast & Furious
Time: 99 minutes

Update: I almost forgot, while I was in the cantata after the donation I looked at a couple of old National Geographics. The pictures, advertisements, and so many things were straight out of the 80s. The cover story of the October 1982 issue was about "The Chip." It talked about transistors on a chip that were becoming part of people's lives in many ways. The story even had a glossary to explain terms like bytes and RAM. There was even an ad for a Ford car (Escort I think) that had an EPG estimated 33 MPG.

Twenty-seven years from now someone will pick up a magazine from 2009. I want to tell that person I helped realize the exciting possibilities that were only imagined on those pages.