Day 8

Labor Day. I enjoy 3 day weekends. This weekend was a little boring. I didn't leave the house very much. I did give platelets today. It went ok. Not great, but fine. I didn't feel that well starting at about 25 minutes left. On my way out the door I thought I might be sick, but I was able to just sit in the car for a few minutes and relax. I knew I had to eat soon and I didn't really think I should drive all the way home. Especially since there wasn't some one at home waiting for me with a snack like there sometimes is. Instead I went to McDonald's which was just a mile or 2 down the road. I went through the drive through and then sat in the parking lot and ate.

I had originally planned to go see a movie this afternoon, but I still wasn't feeling great after lunch so I came home and watched TV in bed for basically the rest of the day. I was only going to lay down for an hour or so, but I just couldn't get myself out of bed. My arms hurt. It looks like I might have a bruise on at least one of the needle sites. The person doing my needles seemed a little unsure of herself about the whole process. They also hurt a little more going in than usual.

I talked to Morgan today about my coming to visit her. It sounds like she does not have the whole week of Sukkot off, maybe just one day. We couldn't tell from the schedule they had sent. She should find out for sure tomorrow. I was thinking of going to visit her for Sukkot, but I forgot that Sukkot is at the very beginning of October this year. October 3rd. It seems a little crazy to go visit her when she's only been there for a month if that means I won't get to see her again for another 4 months. For some reason I thought Sukkot was at the end of October. It still would have been less than half way through, but it would have been a little closer to the middle. Now I'm thinking more seriously about going during their mid-term break in November. I just have to figure out how to do Thanksgiving in St. Louis and 10-ish days in Israel and making sure all goes well at work.

November was going to be stressful anyway because we were only going to have something like 4 business days to take care of our lists. I think this time my life has to be more important than work.

Day 6

Well, it's Saturday. I got to talk to Morgan a few times today. We tried Skype but the internet connection isn't really working there so our calls kept getting dropped. It's supposed to be fixed on Monday. I stayed in bed most of the day. I managed to do 2 loads of laundry. I only left the house to go pick up some Chinese food for dinner.

I can't wait to go visit Morgan. I'm not sure what I'm going to do tomorrow.

Monday I'm off work but I'm giving platelets at 10am. Then I'll probably just come home and crash. Tuesday starts another week, then we do this all over again.

Donating Platelets

So, I donated platelets today. It didn't great.

First, I failed the iron test the first time so a supervisor had to come and check my iron again.

Second, Morgan was meeting me there to pick up the turkey so it didn't sit in my car for 2 hours. Because it took so long to get the supervisor and do my iron twice I was still answering the questions when Morgan came to get my keys. The nurses wouldn't let her see me because I was behind the privacy shower curtain so we passed my keys back and forth through another nurse.

Third, they were having some trouble with the iodine swabs and the swab kept coming off the stick so she had keep opening new ones so it took a while to get started on the needle.

Fourth, with about 4 minutes left to go I started feeling a little nauseous. So I said, "excuse me, I'm not feeling that great all of a sudden." I'm not sure if you've ever said you weren't feeling well while donating blood. But the nurses pounce on you. All of a sudden there were 4 nurses surrounding me and staring at me shouting things
Nurse 1 pulls the blanket off me
Nurse 1: Pause her
Nurse 2: (tips my chair back)
Nurse 1: Is she paused?
Nurse 3: yes, she's paused
Nurse 1: Cough a few times, it'll make you feel better.
Me: cough (softly as 4 people stare at me)
Nurse 1: Get me another cold pack (as she puts one cold pack behind my neck)
Nurse 3: here you go
Nurse 1: (puts the second cold pack on my forehead)
Nurse 4 (the supervisor who took my iron the 2nd time): How does she look.
Nurse 1: Her color is coming back.
Nurse 4: Can you cough a few times? It will help.
me: cough, cough (still kind of softly as 4 people stare at me)
Nurse 3: Do you want some water
Me: yes, thanks
Nurse 5: I'll get it.
Nurse 1: Maybe some soup would be better. Do you want some soup?
Me: I guess if it's available.
Nurse 5: So, do you want the soup?
Nurse 3: Yes - she wants soup
Nurse 4: Can you do some big coughs?
Me: cough (still kind of softly)
Nurse 4: No bigger, like you're trying to clear your throat
Me: cough
Nurse 1: No, Like this: COUGH
Me: COUGH
Nurse 4: Good, do a few more of those
Me: COUGH COUGH
Nurse 1: Are you feeling better now?
Me: Yes, thank you
Nurse 1: Re-infuse her
Nurse 3: She's re-infusing
Nurse 1: We're just giving you back your red blood cells
Me: Great
....
It went on like this for 4 or 5 more minutes.
Then I went and sat at the table while a volunteer stared at me like I might pass out.
Then I came home. It was awesome.