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Renewal Weekend
Author: TriSec    Date: 04/23/2011 10:52:37

Good Morning!

Well, if it's an early Saturday blog, that can only mean one thing...I'm off to donate platelets! If you're a whole-blood donor already, why not take the next step? (Ooh, and Christian angle today; "This is the bag of my blood...the sign of a new and everlasting commitment. It will be shed for you and for all so that transfusions may be given...")



Become a platelet donor!

If you've donated blood before, you know that you've made a tremendous difference for the hospital patients who received your blood. You can take that feeling one step further by donating platelets. Many hospital patients need platelets to survive. By donating platelets, you provide an invaluable gift of life.

Why are platelets needed?

Blood is made of four components: platelets, plasma, red blood cells and white blood cells. The platelet component is necessary to control bleeding. Patients undergoing chemotherapy and radiation treatments are unable to produce enough platelets. Without platelet transfusions, life-threatening hemorrhages could result.

History of plateletpheresis

Until recently, the only way to collect enough platelets for a single transfusion was to take units of blood given by 5 to 10 donors, separate the platelets from the other blood cells using a centrifuge and combine the platelets.

Today, sophisticated medical equipment-blood cell separators-can collect enough platelets for a transfusion from a single donor. The separator automatically removes platelets from the blood you are donating and returns the rest of the blood to you.

It is a simple, safe process-very much like a regular blood donation

Who receives platelets?

Most patients undergoing a bone marrow transplant, surgery, chemotherapy, radiation treatment or organ transplant need donated platelets in order to survive. A platelet recipient could be a family member, friend, neighbor, acquaintance or stranger. Your donation can save a life.

How are platelets donated?

By using a special method called apheresis (ay-fer-ee-sis), whole blood is separated into components, and the platelets are removed. Specially trained Red Cross nurses and staff conduct the procedure while you relax, watch TV or read. The entire process takes about two hours.

Who can donate?

You can continue to give whole blood in addition to platelets. You must be healthy, meet medical requirements and be willing to share your good health with a seriously ill patient. There is no possible way to contract any disease, including AIDS, by donating platelets or whole blood. All needles and containers are sterile, used only once, and then carefully discarded. Because platelets are quickly replenished by your body, you can give platelets up to 24 times a year. Red Cross staff will work with you to schedule a convenient donation time.

How often can I give?

Your body is able to replenish its supply of platelets very quickly so they are always in plentiful supply. Generally, a person may donate platelets as frequently as every 48 hours but no more than 24 times a year. Restrictions vary, however, from center to center.



And since it is Easter, and maybe spring where you are (although not here...pouring rain and snow at the higher elevations...gotta love New England!), how about a big cheer for the bugs?


WORCESTER, Mass.—What's the best part of spring? Is it the bright sky, warm air, the end of shoveling, the flowers suddenly in bloom?

For adults, maybe. But if you're a kid, it's definitely the bugs.

Yes, the bugs are back. Awakened by a strengthening sun, they come crawling out of the spring mud to bite, sting, take wing, form armies of ants, pollinate plants, become unwitting food for frogs and birds and hatch their billions and billions of creepy crawly babies. What's not to love?

Signs of spring are everywhere at Massachusetts Audubon's Broad Meadow Brook Wildlife Sanctuary. Most adults who traverse the trails on the 400-acre preserve are looking for birds and other wildlife. But a group of kids attending nature day camp at the sanctuary yesterday was definitely focused on creatures in the six-to-eight-leg range.

"Isn't he cute?" a very excited Audrey Johnson, 8, of Auburn, said, holding up a bug jar, a small Lucite cube with a magnifying-lens top. Inside was . a lovely millipede, larger than life under the lens, writhing around in all its slimy glory. Oooooh, nice. (Shudder, shudder, gag). Here you go, Audrey. You can take him back now.

Slithery Millie's time in the sun was short, however. Moments later Audrey coaxed a bevy of lightning bugs from the bark of a tree and got three of them to crawl on the back of her little hand all at once. This feat gave the other kids a bad case of bug envy. But Audrey, apparently, is a born diplomat. "You can have one," she said to a frowning co-camper, holding her hand close to the other girl's and, with a gentle poke, trying to coax one of the beetle-like trio to make the leap.

For grown-ups, the list of non-insect things springing to life includes vibrant green skunk cabbage popping up in wet patches, brilliant yellow marsh marigolds, vernal pools, spotted salamanders, wood frogs and spring peepers calling in the new season with their high-pitched evening chorus.

"It's just fabulous here in the spring," said Deborah D. Cary, director of Central Sanctuaries for Mass Audubon. "The color green is greener than you can ever remember. We have all kinds of birds coming back and butterflies coming out."


So...if you celebrate, have a blessed and happy Easter weekend. If you don't, then have a great Spring weekend. And if you're a putz....well, go poop in your hat.


 

4 comments (Latest Comment: 04/24/2011 01:03:35 by BobR)
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