Did another triple of platelets this afternoon.
I have another appointment scheduled for the 30th of May, so I should be able to sneak 1 more triple in before the drive is over
I know you mentioned this before - and I thought I was going to do the same, BUT... I had a 1-arm apheresis failure on my most recent attempt.
Due to my odd vein arrangement, they were only able to find one that they were comfortable with for the platelet donation. Now the in/out through one arm worked fine last time, but this time there was some infiltration, which in this case was the fluids being pumped back into my vein on the return cycle escaping the intended vein and "leaking" into the surrounding tissue. FYI - after a few successful in/out cycles, my arm and hand started to feel like it was inflating and was expanding like a balloon (it wasn't). Of course, being the type to just grit my teeth and deal with it, I let this go on for a little longer than I should have. The tech came back after a few minutes and noticed that it was not going correctly, and admonished me a bit for not having alerted her. Oops. As payment for my machismo I was rewarded with a nice baseball-sized bruise. Although I guess I should consider myself lucky - she mentioned that she has seen infiltration bruises that run the length of the entire arm.
Unfortunately, due to medical policy in this case, apparently due to the fact that the machine was not able to return enough fluids, I was classified as having donated whole blood, and therefore would not be able to donate for a couple more months.
How do you decide if it's going to be 2 units or 3 units?
You don't decide - it's the techs at your blood center that decide. In my case (at least the last time I did this) they decided that due to a slow return flow, it would take too much time for a full 3 units. The computer on the apheresis machine itself advised a 190 minute estimate at the rate I was going.
Donated a triple unit of platelets yesterday. Took about 90 minutes but overheard the nurses that some people can do it in 45 minutes.
According to the folks at my local Lifesource, it's all about the vein configuration. For example, although my veins pop out of my arm looking like a roadmap, apparently they are laid out like a city street grid rather than a straight shot expressway. In other words, the veins that aren't loose are too kinked to flow they way they need em. So it looks like it's back to whole blood donations for me.