Today I went to the blood bus to... well, donate blood. It's been about 9 years since I last gave blood, not for any reason, I just never got around to it. So when I saw the bus I decided to just go ahead and do it. Initially, I was just going to give the normal way, but once the nurse found out I had the blood type O- she really wanted me to donate via some special machine that separates the plasma and red blood cells. They keep the red blood cells and then give me back the plasma. In return, this method yields 2 units of usable red blood cells that can be used within 24 hours. The other method yields 1 unit of red blood cells that can be used, at the earliest, in one week. So, it was worth the long wait and I'll be donating again in the fall :-)
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