Phlebotomy

Phlebotomy technician

I did the every 8 week blood donation today. I asked the 23 year old phlebotomist where she was trained (Century College - link above). I also guessed her wage at $ 28,000. This young single mother of two boys, invested 9 weeks and $ 1,300 for training. Straight out her wage was $ 13.30 per hour and she received a 30¢ raise after a short period. I actually know a seminary graduate who at the age of 30 makes just about the same amount

Comment: Image source

Whole blood donation

After a couple of bad experiences with the apheresis donation (multiple pokes, an hour to give, etc), today I went back to the whole blood donation. Blood started flowing at 11:26 and I was done in 8 minutes flat.

Tough time at the blood center

I again did the Aphereis blood donation. If I understand it correctly they take 2 pints ... separate the red cells ... and put the remainder (clear) back.

The first poke in the left arm did not go well. A little blood came through the plastic tubing and then stopped. The attendant poked and poked and never got any more to come out. I was freaking out a little bit as the poking makes me feel uncomfortable. Finally they gave up on the left arm and poked the right and got a good stream.

I'm still committed to this, although I was a little uncomfortable today.

Liberals are cheapskates!

Bleeding Heart Tightwads

Excerpt:

Liberals show tremendous compassion in pushing for generous government spending to help the neediest people at home and abroad. Yet when it comes to individual contributions to charitable causes, liberals are cheapskates.

Arthur Brooks, the author of a book on donors to charity, “Who Really Cares,” cites data that households headed by conservatives give 30 percent more to charity than households headed by liberals. A study by Google found an even greater disproportion: average annual contributions reported by conservatives were almost double those of liberals.

Other research has reached similar conclusions. The “generosity index” from the Catalogue for Philanthropy typically finds that red states are the most likely to give to nonprofits, while Northeastern states are least likely to do so.

The upshot is that Democrats, who speak passionately about the hungry and homeless, personally fork over less money to charity than Republicans — the ones who try to cut health insurance for children.

...

Americans give sums to charity equivalent to 1.67 percent of G.N.P., according to a terrific new book, “Philanthrocapitalism,” by Matthew Bishop and Michael Green. The British are second, with 0.73 percent, while the stingiest people on the list are the French, at 0.14 percent.

...

Conservatives also appear to be more generous than liberals in nonfinancial ways. People in red states are considerably more likely to volunteer for good causes, and conservatives give blood more often. If liberals and moderates gave blood as often as conservatives, Mr. Brooks said, the American blood supply would increase by 45 percent.

Comment: Interesting.

Saturday miscellanea

The house work (from hail damage on 5/31) commenced yesterday. Having done: new roof, 11 windows, siding on 2 sides, gutters and downspouts.

It took me almost three months to get all the insurance details finalized.

Kathee and I had a very hectic week. I virtually never get headaches but yesterday I had a raging one at the end of the day.

We came home and there were still roofers pounding away. The cats were in an absolute frenzy (imagine being home all day to this!!). The pounding went on until 8 p.m. It was not a relaxing evening.

K and I slept in until almost 8. Roofers arrived shortly thereafter and the banging commenced.

I gave blood by apheresis again today. This is an every 16 week thing. There are 2 times when I feel a little scared ... when they poke my finger for the initial blood test and when they put the needle in my arm.

Roof work looks to be finished. There is a big dumpster in the driveway still.

K is going shopping at 2:30 and I am going to take a drive in the country.

Roger and Kate are coming for dinner.

Worship tomorrow at 4th.

Apheresis blood donation

Apheresis

This was a first for me, I gave blood via the apheresis blood donation method. "Apheresis" is Greek for "taking away". The apheresis method takes 2 units of blood platelets and returns the blood plasma. Details:

1. One has to have an iron count of greater than 40. Mine was 44 today.
   
2. The machine that does the process is a Baxter ALYX Component Collection System (picture above)
   
3. There is just a single needle in the arm (just like whole blood donation)
   
4. The Alyx system has three bags. Bag 1 is the whole blood, bag 2 is the red platelets, and bag 3 is the plasma.
   
5. There are 4 cycles each with 2 phases. The first phase draws whole blood into the first collection bag. A centrifuge separates the platelets from the plasma filling bages 2 and 3. The second phase pumps the plasma back into the donor.
   
6. For me the process took 23 minutes.
   
7. One can view the deep red whole blood being removed, then the light pink, then clear plasma being returned.
   
8. When completed: bag 1 is empty (a temporary holder of whole blood); bag 2 is full of red platelets; bag 3 (temporary holder of plasma) is empty.
   

If in the Twin Cities and interested, visit the Memorial Blood Center to donate. The Wiki article (top link) explains the process. My own explanation is from a layman's perspective, so it may not be completely accurate.