My Bloody Obsession
It is my 50th donation!
The journey started in 2012 when my colleague, Ann, asked me to donate blood the following day because the Singapore Red Cross was coming in to do their regular remote corporate blood donation drive. Apparently, every 3 months, they could collect about 200 bags of blood from us.
I told Ann “no” because from young, my mother has always implanted the idea in my head that ladies do not have enough blood so not to donate blood plus I am definitely not a fan of needles!
Ann let out a cold laugh and sarcastically remarked that a bold and loud person like me is afraid of a tiny needle! She tried to convince me that it is not painful and she would go along with me.
The next morning, just as I thought Ann would have forgotten about the whole idea, she came bouncing to my desk and said “let’s go!”. I must have been under some sort of her spell, I followed her out and as they always say — the rest is history.
So, how did the fear become an obsession?
I am a sucker for challenges. I never imagined it to be such a difficult task to donate blood, especially for a lady! The main steps include:
1) Fill up a questionnaire and declaration form which includes about 55 questions about your general wellbeing, travel history, medical history, vaccination history and lifestyle & social history (including 10 questions on sexual behaviour!)
2) Finger pricking to test blood for hemoglobin (Hb)level — min 12.5g/dl for ladies, 13 for men. Half of the ladies would fail at this station if they do not put in an effort to increase their iron intake through foods or supplement a week before donation. By the way, minimum weight to donate is 45kg, so petite ladies with ideal weight can fail this too.
3) Doctor consult to go through questionnaire in point 1 above plus blood pressure and heartbeat rate checked.
4) Veins must be big enough
The above should take less than 30 minutes to complete, assuming normal crowd. Actual whole blood donation takes about 15 minutes because it takes me about 4min to “pump out” a 450ml-bag of whole blood (about 10% of total blood volume in our body). All in, no more than 60 minutes.
One is allowed to donate every 12 weeks so that red blood cells can have enough time to replenish themselves. If there are any medical procedures, trip to malaria-risk countries (business trip to India or leisure holiday overnight at Bintan or Batam, for example), flu, fever or sore throat etc. will mean a deferral from the minimum 12 weeks.
So, you can see that even if you can make sure you stay healthy and travel to the “right” countries for business or holiday, the maximum you can donate is just 4 times a year. Then how did I manage to do 50 donations in 8 years?!
5 years later in 2017, I came to know that one can become an Apheresis donor instead. What’s Apher — ? I still do not know how to pronounce that properly as google threw out a number of valid ones.
It means donating components of the blood, mainly platelets and plasma. Whole blood is pumped into a machine that separates the platelets and plasma. Blood cells are returned back to the body. It takes about 7 rounds of in and out to achieve the target.
So, easily, I will be sitting on the zero-gravity chair provided, for more than 60 minutes squeezing the stress ball and watching the individual tv and movie channels provided. Yes, they do treat us very well in that special room because it takes so long to complete the donation. Platelets transfusion is needed for leukemia, immune system, dengue, cancer patients, etc.
Most importantly, platelets replenish themselves every few days instead of few weeks for red blood cells and so waiting period is 4 weeks only, instead of 12 weeks. I can donate every month!
For apheresis donors, the vein must be even larger to facilitate blood cells returning back into the body. This again will eliminate some more ladies from donating because our veins tend to be smaller than the men’s. That is why I am usually the only lady in the apheresis donors’ room. Was told it is 9 men to 1 lady donor ratio there.
I remember the first time I saw a fellow lady donor, I jumped with joy and went to make friends with her. It was her 138th donation! Assuming I can do it every month, it will take me minimally 7.5 years to achieve that number!
The highest number of donations by an individual is 307! Something I am not likely to achieve this lifetime. The following 2 months, lady and I had the same donation dates and we bumped into each other but she failed her Hb reading on the third month and had to come back again and so our donation dates will not align then onwards. I am not sure when I will see her again.
As a monthly donor, I am more aware and mindful of my body and health; more careful with my foods; time my medical procedures; time and select my holiday destinations; I make new year resolution on target number of donation. That is why friends say I am obsessed with it but it is not a bad thing, I think.
In 2019, there were 75,655 blood donors in Singapore, which is less than 2% of resident population. We need about 119,000 units of blood a year, 14 units every hour.
Compared to other forms of giving to charities in cash or kind, blood donation is a cheap, convenient and more direct way in contributing to mankind and you know exactly how and where it is going to. Can you imagine if one day you or your loved ones need blood transfusion and there is none in the blood bank?!
Though donors are volunteers, we are always given free food and drinks after each donation. I have a collection of cute stress balls used for our “pumping” purpose. I receive medallions, certificates, t-shirts, birthday month donation gifts, calendars, etc.
It is the season of giving, so, please give it a try, make a blood donation, save some lives! You won’t regret trying and as the Chinese saying goes — one is more blessed giving than receiving !(施比受更有福).
