With all my vaccinations up to date and my iron bolstered, it’s back to my relatively regular, varied (and somewhat) scheduled programming. I stopped by the local blood donation centre (see above) and had a rather interesting visit today. Interesting enough to write a blog post on.

First up, a bit of background. Back in May I donated some platelets, a first for me. However, I was only able to give two donations before my platelets dipped under the one-year “ban-hammer” threshold I was given of 150x10^9/L, at 147x10^9/L. That left me with either plasma or whole blood donations. More recently, I’ve held off donating whole blood as my iron stores were getting a bit on the low side. Vegan! Although diet isn’t the only thing that can affect iron stores; donating blood can lower them too. The Lifeblood folk have to consider the health of the recipient and the donor.

Anyway, I am a squish ball donor. I’ve never had much luck with the “alternative” methods of getting enough blood to my cold, dead hands. I tell them very firmly that I will not roll the squish ball. I will not even *try* to roll a heat pack around in my hand either. Every time I’ve done that the machine beeps at me with insufficient blood flow. Squish ball to maximum. That’s my motto! It’s worked for 32 donations so far, with squish ball having been there every step of the way. Squeezing and relaxing still need to follow the staff’s instructions, whatever my motto says.

Today, I witnessed two donors with similar issues. One, a lady to my left, had her donation cut short. My collection target this time was 824mL of plasma. I got 825mL in - take that the system! Poor lady only got through 217mL of her ~600mL before being released due to too much pressure. I wondered whether it was the vein, but I couldn’t tell from the next chair. I know when I let the nurses loose they usually pick the right one. Left arm, middle vein - that’s my mainstay. My right arm, middle vein has a little pain, so I reserve it for whole blood donations since mine only last eight minutes instead of 40 minutes. Anyway, after they had bandaged her arm up she queried,

“They can still use it, right?”

“Absolutely, yes”, the nurse shot back after glancing at the machine stats.

“Thank you!”, she said in a cheery tone.

“No, thank you for donating!”, declared the nurse.

Once the donor had left the area… the nurse went over to the sink and cocked her head back and declared, “217-millilitres? Try again next time love!”, before pouring the entire donation down the sink.

Well, that last bit didn’t happen, although they did pour something down the sink. I’ll come back to that. I’m quite happy to have never been kicked out yet before a complete donation. There was that time my arm didn’t quite clot and I dripped blood everywhere. Oh, and that other time the nurse missed the vein and they almost fainted. That was a very close one. Good thing I have two arms… haha!

The next thing to happen, was a very small child going off to the interview rooms. I wondered how a child was allowed to donate. They were not a child. I guess I’m not a good judge of age or weight.

This donor had issues with slow flow as well. I was able to not only catch and overtake them but completely finish before they had reached their halfway mark. Yes, they were using the roll method and were “upgraded” by nursing staff to the heat pack method - which made the donation even slower.

My understanding was that the roll method helped avoid squeezing during the return cycle. If you’re distracted by your phone or book, your veins will explode… OK, that was my dramatic version! The important part was knowing when to squeeze and when to relax, following the staff’s instructions. Personally, I’ve never understood why people read a book or use their phone when donating. I just zone out at the TV and focus on the noise of the machine with the inflating of the cuff.

And even though it was probably going to end up taking the above donor twice as long, they were sticking at it. Kudos! Again, I wondered whether it was just a slow vein, but I didn’t know. I felt for them when the nurses gave them the heat pack ball, until I realised how distracted they were on their phone. They didn’t seem to be paying attention to the machine! OK, maybe the roll method made more sense for this one.

Back to my donation. As I reached the final stage I realised my isotonic saline was still half full. My theory at the time was that the saline sourced was new old stock bought on the cheap from hospitals. The yellowed rubber connectors certainly looked the part, but appearances couldn’t tell me its age or where it had come from. Remember that drain-talk from earlier? They were pouring the saline down the sink. Even half of my saline would be destined for the sink.

It also reminded me that Australia was relying quite heavily on imported plasma-derived products. The later 2020-21 report puts the immunoglobulin supply at 53% manufactured domestically and 47% imported. That’s immunoglobulin, not simply “the rest of our plasma”. My “lowest bidder and all that” reaction was cynicism, not something I’d established about the contracts. What can I do? Withhold donations? That’s a bad idea for all involved.

Although some of the penny pinching is starting to show. When I started donating in 2014 they gave Byron Bay Cookies. They disappeared a few years ago now but made a brief comeback. Since then I have become vegan, so the point is a little bit moot now with all the milk and butter involved in a cookie. But now they’re messing with my beloved Arnott’s Jatz three-pack, replacing it with…

Crak Oz. Yep. Rumour had it they were made in China or contained no Australian ingredients, but all I can actually show here is the front of the packet. Either way, they are no substitute for… Oh. That slogan makes a lot of sense now. My lucky 13th plasma donation is in a month. Let’s go! #teamplasma

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