I've been benched

This month I gave blood for the second time in my life.

I whipped out my blood donor card to show them, with pride, the A+ blood type proudly printed for all who cared to see.  I'll admit it. I felt pretty important. It's not every one who can walk in to a donation center and actually hand over a physical part of themselves. Usually it's an old pair of jeans or a computer monitor. Nope. Not me. They don't want my old jeans anyway. But my blood ... that is valuable. That can actually save a life.

So I got greedy.

I thought since I'm such a natural at blood-giving, I'd try my hand at platelets too. I asked to have an extra vial of blood drawn to test for my eligibility. I was excited because it takes two hours to donate platelets and you get to watch a movie while a machine draws your blood, spins it in a centrifuge to separate the blood parts it needs, and then puts the unneeded blood parts back in your body. What a trip! Not to mention you're even more special and needed as a platelet donor. (I mean really, that's why we do this philanthropy stuff, right? So we can feel better about ourselves?)

So my blood went off to the lab, and I pumped out a pint of whole blood for my donation in record time before continuing home ... to wait for my acceptance letter to the world of platelet donation.

The letter came last week.

"Dear Ms. England, Thank you for your support of our Blood Donation Program ... However your Complete Blood Count collected at that donation was out of the standard range. For your own safety you will not be eligible to donate for a longer period of time before your next donation. Your platelet count is below what is required to participate in our platelet program."

I've been rejected. Not only from the platelet program, but now I have to wait longer before I can make another whole blood donation. And from the looks of it, I'm going to need my own donation of platelets since my count is now so much lower. There was a hint of sarcasm in that by the way.

Back in March of this year I had a CBC run and my platelet count was at 167, well within the range to donate blood and platelets. Fast-forward nine months to December and my platelet count is now 125 (the eligible range is 150 - 550). This could be because I gave blood back in September. It could also mean I'm B12 and Folate deficient. I may also have leukemia (no, I don't ... but I could).

Anyway, so here I sit ... sidelined from heroism when so many people need me. Stay strong everyone, help will be on the way ... once it gets some help of its own.