What is an Apheresis Donation?

What is an Apheresis Donation?

Christina M. Callisto
Freelance Writer
Published in Military Voice & Community News May/June edition, 2010

Every other week, I chose to leave comfort of my home to endure a slight inconvenience for a little over an hour in order to save the life of a stranger I will never meet. One more day of life will be given to locals in my area who will never know who I am or why I helped them. After a tragedy, my gift may even be shipped around the world.

An apheresis donation is similar to a whole blood donation. Your blood has four parts: red cells, white cells, platelets, and plasma. The red cells carry oxygen around your body, white cells fight infections. Platelets allow your wounds to clot, while the plasma is the fluid that caries all of these cells and more. The apheresis process draws your blood just as with the whole blood cycle. However, the blood is spun in a self-contained, sterile, single-use packaging within a machine. The donation is separated and collected while the rest is returned to you.

Apheresis usually collects either plasma, platelets, or both. I donate platelets. After registering, reading over the medical and travel restrictions, answering a health history questionnaire, and having my blood pressure, temperature, and iron count tested and recorded, I can relax on a comfortable recliner in front a TV offering endless channels or a collection of movies to entertain me. Speakers are even built into my chair so I can listen without headphones if others are also watching a TV. I opt to turn on the heating pad and grab a blanket. Nice and cuddly as I would be in my house, I can enjoy a few shows and save a few lives. Then I am treated to a drink and some sweets. If it’s during a meal time, you might be lucky and able to grab a donation of food brought in from local restaurants. Locations usually have free stuff to choose from as a thank you. I have gotten gas cards, movie tickets, t-shirts, and restaurant vouchers, all donated by local merchants and other sponsors.

I won’t lie; the last thing I want is to be stuck with a needle. I was lucky enough to be blessed with wonderful veins, so I opt for a two arm draw. This also means two needles. Find a comfortable position, a needle prick, and it’s over. Squeeze a squish ball every few seconds to keep the blood flowing and get lost in your movie. Many people chose to use one arm, which takes longer, but allows them to read. I have seen men in business suits reading over memos, Airmen in uniform flipping through military and local newspapers, college kids studying notes before a test, and grandparents taking a break from retired life and enjoying a novel.

You could say such donations are in my blood. My mother and father are lifelong blood donors. Both hate needles, but endure it to help others. I find apheresis much less draining (no pun intended), and I am able to donate more often, two weeks as opposed to 56 days, as the body can replenish the platelets faster than all of the parts which are included in a whole blood donation. Whole blood is able to last slightly longer than platelets, which must be used within five days before they are no longer healthy. I chose apheresis over whole blood because, when the call goes out after a tragedy, many people find the strength to donate blood. But who hears the silent call of a mom suffering with cancer or a child who cannot play with friends because of a debilitating blood disease? Burn victims, leukemia patients, bone marrow transplant recipients, the list is endless.

There are so many personal calls that go unheeded. This is why I make an apheresis donation. I also chose this because so few people know about it or are willing to take the time to help those who suffer every day. Please consider this the next time you are thankful for all that you have.

Northwest Florida Blood Center www.nfbcblood.org/
American Red Cross www.redcross.org/

May 1, 2010 at 3:17 am

A *living* victim of road rage!

Well I was threatened today: I better be glad she didn’t have her heat on her or I would be dead right now.

Apparently this woman did not like that I pulled out onto my street about 6 houses and 1 street width, not including the one I was turning off of, away from her and prohibited her from continuing her crazy breakneck speed. The entire road is posted for 25mph about every 4 houses. I have lived here for three years, I know where each ones is. We have an elementary school and a church on my road two houses down from my place where the speed limit slows to 20 mph.

I made sure she was far enough away when I pulled out, put my blinker onto turn right and immediately pulled into the paved area to turn into my place. I heard her horn from house 6. And her breaks locking at house 2 and the rubber on the road at house 1 when I was already in my right merge. I knew if there was an impact it would be on my left side, a scraping crush. How did she get from house 6 to 1 – she clearly saw me if her horn was blaring (unless she was paying attention to something else?) – having to slam on the breaks if she was going 25 miles an hour? Even at 35 there was plenty of time! I went one car lengths distance. It’s a slight Z where the road doesn’t go straight into my parking lot- but almost!

No impact.

Instead of being a good mom, she tails me until I park, pulls up and starts screaming at me and slamming her hand against the seat saying something about she has a kid in the car. I can see its head moving around, I believe it is a boy about 4 years old, probably younger. All I said, calmly, was “25 miles per hour. “ “F- that! F-ing 25 miles an hour! … kid…. f-….” When there was a lull I calmly repeated “25 miles per hour.” Not surprising, she was enraged all the more each time I said that. The passenger seat was being hit so hard it was bouncing back into her arm, something I have only seen in vehicle crash tests.

I then see her reaching around for something, white papers flapping into the air. I am about to reach for my cell phone to call 911 when she says ” You better be glad I don’t have my heat on me or you’d be dead!” and flies out of the parking lot. I mean bat out of hell speed!

My next thought was If I was shot in my car, my milk, the only reason I went out, would spoil before someone would have found me. My husband is deployed, the neighbors were out on this beautiful early afternoon Sunday. In retrospect I am surprised I remained so calm. I got the groceries out of the car, which took two trips, and locked the front door when it was all in. I had to call someone so I phoned L and explained it to her. Then I freaked out! It all came out. She says, ” It’s time to move! Get out of that area! You were so right, they do need speed bumps! But we all have road rage stories like that. I don’t know if I told you when…”

After I talked about it I was fine again. I left the house for my Apheresis platelet donation at the NWFL Bloodcenter where I was told my blood pressure was great. I had, of course, told them the story. They could apparently see on my face something was amiss.

Now I am home, all alone, and worried. Have you ever been threatened like that before? I could have jumped from my car to my window. That is how close I was to my place. She saw where I can be assumed to live. I would have kept going, but what if she was actually going into the next lot and I would have been exacerbating the situation by continuing on?

Interestingly enough, she never called me any names. None! I can think of a string of words that could have been used. But none were. This leads me to believe that she wasn’t actually angry at me, myself, perhaps, but at her situation which would have been causing her to feel the need to drive at such excessive speeds in a residential area. Perhaps she was a worried mom scared that her terrible actions could have caused her the life of her child at such an impact. I can only hope. I am truly far more worried that child is living with an addict. Exactly what would cause someone to be that aggressive. Aggressive speeding and driving. Slamming the seat so hard it actually was bouncing back. I would never have screamed like that or been so violent with a child in the car or anywhere near the area.

I am only assuming she was the parent. “Kid” was the word repeated, not son or daughter or even child.

However, I am alive. I am safe. And I am going to forget the nice townhouse I just saw for rent a block away from here. As my husband, God love him, said, “We need to get away from the Walmart. It is just too close. We have seen this neighborhood decline and its just time to go.” I really hate to admit that it is true. This was such a nice area. I also really do not want to associate this kind of behavior with a company or location. I have shopped there, many decent people do. But the community built closest to it is gated.

Boy, it’s times like this I wish he was home. Like this? I have never been threatened before! I hope this never happens to you. Or to me ever again. I need some cookies and milk!

June 7, 2010 at 10:46 am