Human Lifestyle

A bit of a frustrating day, blog-wise, as I was keen to send my Mass Observation post to the website recording the day, but Blogger was down all day, and had lost my post, and was just showing Wednesday's as the last one.  However, I got on with various other things.

One of the things was to get a sack of riddled compost for Kay, and to fill a sack of unriddled out of a compost bin of finished 'raw' compost for her, and load my trailer.

I got a reply from a freecycler saying yes to the microwave.  He'll collect tonight.

I had an early lunch  and at 1pm got going to Kay's in Holgate.  This delivery took a much shorter time than expected, and I arrived at the station to catch my bus at 1.45.... and my bus was 2.38.  But there was an earlier bus, which passed Seacroft Hospital so I caught that.

As I arrived in Leeds it started to rain heavily so on my  short walk to the blood donor centre, I got quite wet. They were happy to deal with me despite my being earlier than expected. I read the standard donor forms and signed the consent, then had another nurse explain about the platelet donation.  I was told that the normal range of platelets in blood was 150,000 to 400,000 per mm3, the average being 200,000 to 250,000.  My count was 370,000 which was why I'd been invited to donate.  Most people donate 2 units in a session lasting between an hour and 90 minutes, but they reckoned I'd be able to give 3 units. If they extract platelets from donated blood, they need 4 units of blood to make one unit of platelets.  They explained about the anticoagulant added to the blood, and the possible side effects.  I signed up to donate.

I was connected up to the machine and it started a cycle of extracting a volume of blood, passing it through a centrifuge to separate red blood cells from the plasma and platelets, and then returned the blood.  I was connected up for an hour, when the machine signalled I'd done... 3 units in 57 minutes.  The nurses were delighted.  They encouraged me to come back in a month.  Whilst having a cuppa afterwards, I got chatting to a chap called John who was an experienced platelet donor, and he lived in York so gave me a lift back to the Tadcaster Road between Tesco and the Cross Keys on St Helen's Road.  I walked into town, taking 20 minutes, and then cycled home, feeling good that I was a special platelet donor. Each time I donate, I'll get two points on my donor record, which so far is 26 units of blood plus today's two units of platelets.  Even though I gave three, I still only get two units on my donor card.

I got in sometime after 6pm and lit the stove, and Gill made me some tea.  The Freecycler collected the microwave.  I had a fairly relaxing evening.... blogger eventually came back and I was able to submit my Mass Observation post.  I didn't get to bed til after 2am.

Today I only had one appointment, which was to go and give blood at 2.10.  I'd made this booking at the end of the last session, but when I arrived at the Merchant Taylor's Hall, they had no record of it.  However, I was processed quickly and I got as far as the blood iron test, to check I'm not anaemic.  I'd been told at the last session that I could apply to be a platelet donor, so at this juncture I said that I was interested.  So when I was lying down, a nurse came to check my veins, and as they were OK, some blood was taken for testing for platelets.  I was told that if I was accepted for platelet donation, I wouldn't be able to give blood, but would be asked to go to Leeds every 4 weeks and donate platelets... the blood is taken out, the platelets removed and the blood returned.  And, the best thing of all, each platelet donation counts as two blood donations.  This was my 26th blood donation, so in theory, I could be on my 50th in a year's time!!! I think that's cheating, actually!

Anyway, my blood flowed nice and quickly and I had a juice and a biscuit, filled in a complaints/feedback form about the booking procedure and also being called 'Mr', which I don't like, and zoomed off.

At about 4pm I went round to Debbie's with some Green Party leaflets, and we walked down to Fishergate to do a round that someone else wasn't able to do.  We walked back through the allotments, and just as Deb was saying that she'd love some rhubarb, I spotted Carol, working next to her rhubarb patch.  I asked her about her rhubarb and said that Debbie had just been saying she'd like to take some and leave some coins in return... and Carol said she could have some.  This made Debbie's day, apparently!

After tea, I spent some time stacking the very dry wood from John Bibby's tree trunk... I have a phenomenal amount to do, over 2 cubic metres of it. 

Later, I had a phone call from my Aunty, saying she didn't want me to come to my Uncle's funeral on Wednesday.  She was worried that a particular family member who doesn't understand or like my lifestyle would cause a scene, so it would be best if I didn't come.  I was quite upset as I didn't realise how much my perceived lifestyle has threatened this person, but I'll go and visit my Aunty another time.  I certainly don't want to be on the receiving end of loud criticism at a funeral.