For anyone who is thinking about donating plasma for the first time, be prepared to spend 2-3 hours getting it done. It's a long and tedious process filled with checks and double-checks, and there was actually even a quiz, surprisingly. I went in with Jolson, and he actually got turned down because the nurse considered it unethical to let him donate because it would make his migraine conditions worse.
After about 2 hours, I finally get hooked up to the machine and everything starts going smoothly...at first. About 30 minutes in, the machine starts making the beep-boop noises that something isn't right. One of the attendants comes over and adjusts the IV, and they continue on. After another 5 minutes, the machine starts beep-booping again, and now they are a little bit more concerned. One the attendants and a nurse come over and look at my arm for a few minutes trying to decide if my vein has been "infiltrated".
They decide yes, and move the IV to my other arm....where they stick the IV in and pretty much go "WE DONE INFILTRATED AGAIN". For those who don't know what I'm talking about, infiltration is an awesome sounding term for when the IV gets messed up in the veins, and if left unchecked for too long can lead to internal bleeding. The attendant told me a horror story about how a guy didn't say he was having any pain at all from being infiltrated without the attendants noticing, and had most of the saline solution go into his arm...creating what looked like a tennis ball under his skin.
After the second infiltration, everyone decided I was done for the day. Luckily, I donated just a little bit over the amount to receive full pay, so that was a plus. We still had to deal with my arms though. If anyone is wondering, the process for dealing with that is gauze, gauze, ice-ball (literally a little balloon of frozen water), more gauze, and then wrapped tight. For anyone who has been stuck in their arms at the joints, you know what I mean when I say that you can't move your arms normally for awhile, especially when you have FIVE LAYERS OF THINGS blocking arm movement.
The instructions said I had to keep the wrap on for at least 2 hours. I got the wraps on at 1:10....and had an exam at 2:20. Exams sure are fun when you can barely move your arms to write the answers. After two hours my right arm was fine, but my left arm (the one they super goofed) still hurt. The instructions they gave me told me I needed to put ice on it, so I went over to WoW and asked for a small bag of ice. Apparently someone in back thought small and "QUART SIZED" were the same thing. At this point I then had to go to choir and nurse what looked liked a small baby against my arm for the entire hour. This is how I ended up with Robot Arms. #donorproblems
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