This morning, I received a phone call from the Blood Assurance office in Chattanooga TN. The woman told me that there is a cancer patient in Chattanooga who is in need of platelets and their records show that I would be the ideal donor for this patient. Would I be interested in donating? Yes, of course I would.
Donating platelets is a bit more complicated than simply donating whole blood. I'd have to drop my son at the baby sitter and I'd have to have enough time to donate. I'm off from work tomorrow, so Friday would be perfect for me. She asked me when I had last taken aspirin......aspirin has an effect on blood platelets and a donor must abstain from taking aspirin for a certain amount of time. I had taken aspirin just last night for my arthritis. This would prohibit me from giving platelets Friday.
The woman at Blood Assurance didn't think the office in Rome did apheresis on Saturdays; but she'd call the office here to see what could be done.
I'd donated platelets here on Saturday before so I didn't think there would be a problem. I'm only five minutes away from the Blood Assurance location, so J.P. and I hopped in the van and drove down there. I believed it would be easier to work out the details in person.
Sure enough, as soon as I walked in, the woman who is in charge of the apheresis machine said, "Hello Robert. I just received a phone call about you."
I said, "Yes, I know. That's why I'm here."
Saturday isn't a problem for either of us....I set up an appointment for 9 AM.
As I was leaving, she said, "It's nice to be needed, isn't it?"
Yes, it is.
1 comment:
That is really cool..... made me smile! Proud you are my brother too!
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