Well, I had an odd Christmas [View all]

[rurallib]

got a call about 2PM on Christmas eve (Saturday).
Someone needed an emergency white cell (blood) donation.
The caller from the blood center acted shocked that I was even at home.
He was the on-call person for the holiday. He hadn't done a white cell donation in over ten years so he was really rusty.
Would i be willing to donate on Christmas? Sure

So the routine is that I get a shot to stimulate white cell production (make me sick) 12 to 16 hours prior to donating.
This involves driving 25 miles into the hospital to get the shot. I did that at 7:30 PM for an 8:30 AM donation.
The head nurse on the leukemia unit started crying. Most likely I was giving for one of her patients. She said they had lost 2 that day.

So I got my shot and went back in to donate Sunday morning.
Thankfully, my two favorite nurses were there to do the procedure. Tim and Zari.
Both can stick a needle in you and you will never feel it.
Both arms were stuck so I was pretty immobile for about 2 hours.
Gave us a great chance to talk. Seems Tim is an old gym rat like I am. We had many mutual acquaintances on the amateur basketball floors around town, but oddly had never faced each other.
I also got to know Zari better. She is about as sweet a person as I have ever met. I was curious if her family did anything at Christmas since she was Muslim. She said, yep they sure did. She has a BIL that is Christian and that is good enough reason to party. But their big party was Wednesday for "the longest night."

And so we were late arrivals at the family gathering. No one said much until my nephew started asking some questions.
I told him when they call for white cells, someone is pretty near death. So, if they are doing them on Christmas it is probably bad.
But we have known that people have been saved before, maybe this time, too?
I spent a lot of time last night thinking about the family of the patient and hoping he pulls through.

Funny thing is I never hear what happens. Unless I somehow accidentally hear.
They set up 4 people to donate and we can each do 4 donations ever 5th day.
So if I get a call to donate Thursday, well, he will still be alive. Else, I will never know.