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

Athena’s birth: to the ER, Stat!

It all started about 9 pm last night. The tension was building in the back of my skull, like a ring from ear to ear along my hairline. As time went on it continued to move along my head and then bang around to different spots on my skull.

Now, I have had these before. But this was something altogether unreal. I took an RX I have for it. Nothing, so, as per directions, I took the second dose two hours later. It was getting worse with each passing moment. This thing was too much for my heavy duty rx.

Athena. That is it! This is what Zeus felt when she was brandishing her weapons, fully clothed in Battle Armour ready to burst forth from his split skull. Minerva, how could you? Hephaestus, where are you when I need you?!

11pm. The tears start to well. I am really sick of this. I break down when I can hear my mother’s voice like a bubble above my head advising me to drink some chamomile tea. I make it, a mixed brew for night time. It is soothing. So now I am fully exhausted, welcoming sleep and the pain is intensifying.

Back and forth from the bed to the couch, I change clothes a million times and adjust the air conditioning to see if warmer or colder would be better. Lights on, lights off. Music on, music off.
Insomnia. I start to clean the room I had earlier torn apart. If I am going to up with insomnia and I am going to make it do my bidding.

The nausea comes on. I hear my friends voice saying she was just praying to die with the horrible case of the belly big she had just gotten over. Maybe that is what I have? Nope, migraine. I have no lower “belly” issues but the overwhelming need to vomit the void in my empty stomach.
I send off a brief email to work explaining about the migraine making me ill and I might not be into work as I haven’t slept all night.

Tears and whimpering come on around 2am and last for two hours. It’s so bad I can’t see anymore and want to pass out. I have been debating going to the Base ER for a few hours now, but what could they do? Like a cold, oh its a headache, nothing here, go back home and suffer…?

Well, finally about 4am I can no longer take it and I just need someone to be around me. I was trying to hold out until the offices might open for the reg dr on base. MIGHT being the operative word. I was supposed to get a call from someone on Monday, so maybe, just maybe… It was just too much for me. Luckily, no one is waiting and it seems really, really quiet. I get in and am so exhausted and in pain I realize I have no idea how I got there. Obviously I drove myself, ID shown at the gate and parked. But I was so preoccupied with the pain none of it had registered in my short term memory.
The situation explained, my bp is way up to 150, not the usual 120. Not surprised. The Dr comes in eventually and I explain it all, show him the rx I took. Yup, I brought it, and I even highlighted the important areas on the info sheet folded inside. -Yes, I do read them! You should to! I explained how I was afraid bc another of my Rxs listed on there can negatively affect and be affected. ER DR had never even heard of my drug, “must be pretty potent stuff if I haven’t heard of it here…”

“Well it’s crap” was my retort, more to myself than to him, as tossed it into my bag. Dr explains that although my dr said not to take anything else with it, I could have in fact taken more pain killers. Great. But he finished with not all drugs work for everyone or on all receptors. This I already knew.
Since I had to drive myself the available options were limited to two. As it was presented to me, the ones which would have worked best would require a driver for me. Yay, deployments! I wanted to scream I AM ALONE! HE IS DEPLOYED AND THERE IS NO ONE TO DRIVE ME AT THIS HOUR OR I WOULD NOT HAVE DRIVEN MYSELF IF IT WAS THIS BAD! The options include a pill which may or may not work based on the effectiveness of my Rx for this particular migraine, or a shot in the bum of a regular painkiller. His suggestion was the shot bc it was more guaranteed. I took it.

The pain! The needle stick was rather squintee as it was a thicker gauged needle,I felt my face pucker. But it was not the worst needle I have had to endure. Then the contents spreads out. A long list of profanities I did not realize I was capable of came out of my mouth. The Pain! Pain for Pain! The irony! I stood there poised over the bed for a bit and then suddenly it was all gone, except for the pain in my head. That was still as prevalent as ever. The relief of the liquid being absorbed into my muscle was amazing.

15 to 20 mins and it should start working. So I called my parents house on the drive home. I know they will pick up. Or I will keep calling until they do. The beauty of house phones. 530 am. 630 am there. Dad was up. He was up two hours ago when I was pulling into and out of my parking spot debating if a trip over to the ER was worth it or just a stupid waste of more painful time. Oh well.
So he talked to me over the course of the drive home. He mentioned I could have called a cab. That had never occurred to me. Even though I see a cab every day, living a few places down from me. But I would have had to call it, drop me off, pick me up. With the pain I was in, I hadn’t even thought of that and may not have even been capable of those instructions.

I was able to go to sleep a while after I got home. My glorious, long awaited respite was interrupted twice. My work cell called and I groggily got up to answer it. It wasn’t the ringer of the phone in the mountain sandbox, but it might just be. I missed it and didn’t recognize the number. No message. Blissfully passed out again the number calls, again. This time I answer it to find a very courteous man explaining he dialed the wrong area code. Same number. I was in such need of sleep that I was able to shut out any further noise once my head hit the pillow and my arms curled around my over sized bear under the covers.

I woke around 9 am and made an apt to get something that works. No more ER trips for me! Forget that! At least I did not have to pay for any of it. I can’t wait for you to be home! When does this ever happen? When you are not around… figures.

June 8, 2010 at 6:06 am