I was infiltrated. LOL… I have to laugh because this term caught me off guard and for a minute I didn’t know what they were talking about. I facebooked something witty about it because once I grab onto something, I don’t let go for a while, but I’m done now.
One of my blogging successes have been my posts on donating platelets, and I’m so grateful for the readers and happy that others like reading these posts because it’s so important to get the awareness going out there. I’m very dedicated to doing this and have been, for the most part, pretty accepting when things don’t go 100% perfect. Yesterday was one such day.
Everything progressed pretty much as expected until I was halfway through my donation. First of all, I was a bit early and got put onto a machine that was new for me. This one had a ball that told me when to squeeze and when to stop by blowing up, then deflating. I even brought an audio book for the usual 90 minutes or so instead of watching TV.
Again, it was just about halfway through when my machine’s alarms started going off. My techie tried to adjust the machine, and she kept coming back to touch my arm. I had hardly noticed anything beyond a mild burning sensation; but during my last donation I had pain and this was nothing as compared to my last experience, “Wow, Uncommon Experience,” and that was considered a successful donation. This time, I hardly felt anything and I ended up with a hematoma inside my arm. This is how it happened. During the apheresis process the blood is drawn out of your body, platelets are removed, then the blood is returned into your body and vein. What was happening this time is that the blood never made it back into the vein and was spilling into the interior of my arm. I had a huge large-ish and hard bump that hurt. The apheresis was terminated and I got a nice bright purple bandage. They put an ice pack over my bump and I was sent to eat cookies.
Later I was told that I did manage one full unit; but that I had to wait the full 56 days before my next donation because the loss of fluid. that makes sense. So, they apologized for what happened, but I realize that I should’ve reported that burning sensation. So my platelet peeps, never hesitate to tell your techie if anything doesn’t feel normal. Burning sensations, pain, and even if the process just doesn’t feel right. I really felt like my arm might pop or something. Last night my arm hurt something awful, but today it’s feeling much better and the bump has pretty much dispersed.
Related articles
- Face of Defense: Army Private Donates Blood Platelets (defense.gov)
- Reuniting blood platelets donor, recipient (journalstar.com)
- How Often Can You Donate Blood? (newsinmedicine.wordpress.com)
- Red Cross issues emergency call for blood and platelet donors (enewscourier.com)
- Wow… Uncommon Experience (dragonmommie.wordpress.com)
DragonMommie's World 
Kudos to you Deb for doing this!!!
Thanks! I try to report on the new stuff that happens so people know what can be expected. Also, you know that I’m available just in case of an emergency and need platelets. I can give them to anyone every two weeks or so.
Grateful for reporting your experience! I’m chiming in late, but this happened to me too on my second attempt. I couldn’t tell anything was wrong at first, since I seemed to be drawing blood fine, but on the return the machine beeped and immediately stopped. My technician tried to readjust the needle position twice (ouch!), but that stinging sensation is quite unique – and definitely wrong. In contrast my first platelet donation went really smoothly!
How bad was your bruising afterwards? After five days my arm is dark purple from below my elbow to above my bicep.
Actually, not very bad and not long until I was healed. I heal quickly…. but that was the first time something like that happened. It comes down to the tech working on you and how skillful they are in what they do.