R.I.P. Mr. Wizard; Double Red Blood Donation
I just read that Mr. Wizard (Don Herbert) passed away this week; I remember watching his show when I was growing up, and I’m sure it had something to do with me pursuing the sciences.
I gave blood tonight; but I tried the “Double Red” donation option. Basically what that means is that they hook you up to an apheresis machine that takes only red blood cells, but by doing so they can take twice as much as would be contained in a whole blood donation. So I reluctantly agreed to do it and they hooked me up to the machine. It was actually a lot more comfortable than the whole blood donation; the needle didn’t hurt when it went in, and I got to sit in a recliner type thing. It started by taking blood as a normal donation would do, then the machine pumped the plasma back in- I’ve never had an IV, but the experience was similar to what I’ve heard an IV feels like. It did that twice and then was done- the cool part was that I left just as hydrated as when I had arrived, because it replaced most of what was taken. So anyway, it was an interesting experience and I would recommend it to anyone who’s eligible.
I’ll probably be posting about some Net Neutrality/Online rights stuff soon; check out The EFF in the meantime.

March 6th, 2008 at 5:04 pm
I want to know what protects ME from the blood of the person that donated double red previously.
March 6th, 2008 at 5:16 pm
As I recall, they said that everything that my blood touched in the entire procedure was single use just like with a whole blood donation.