I showed up to give blood this morning at George Fox. There were several students helping and were just then training to receive donors. One of the young women asked a question I have never been asked in my 45 years of donating blood: "Would you like to be a double red donor?"
My response was that I did not know what that meant, so, "Tell me more." It is more difficult to explain than it is to just have you got to the Red Cross website to get all the facts. Go there now and then read on....
It takes longer, but you end up taking more fluids home than you came with...but...you leave twice the red cells. They have a separator machine running the entire time you are on the couch. The plasma is pumped back into you with some saline. You watch the blood leave (deep red) and the plasma-saline flow back (a light pink), you feel the cool solution go into your arm...and...you do get a tingling sensation in your mouth when the return flow is finished (caused by the anti-coagulant and calcium additives.)
This is the first time I have seen this procedure and feel like a guinea pig, but hey...someone will benefit.
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